A Different View

A recent tour of the Southwest has my head spinning and my camera card bulging with new photos to share with you. But mostly, it is a new "sense of life" attitude I hope to share. On this trip we were rewarded over and over when we stopped to look carefully, while so many other people were in a hurry to go on by.


A California Sister butterfly- a bit worn and tattered and yet so beautifully colored from the underside. At first I didn't recognize this southwestern beauty, alighted just above my eye level. It was waiting out a misting rain in a portion of the Mojave desert associated with Red Rocks Canyon. Normally, these fast fliers are but a streak of black and white as they dart high over head in the heat of the day. I was never able to train my camera on the fleet-winged wonders!

A most common butterfly for the southwest, but a wondrous sight for someone seeking new adventures and new butterflies. This tattered old specimen offered the close inspection I had been craving- and a very different point of view.




From his desert perch, a White-tail Antelope Squirrel, enjoys a bit of late fall sun. To my untrained eyes it would pass for a chipmunk, but these specialty rodents are adapted to life in the desert. While they generally avoid the heat of mid-day, our visit coincided with cooler weather, when antelope squirrels bask to help maintain higher body temperatures.
...
As other people raced on by, I felt sorry they were missing all the wonders of nature! And I realised nature is for those of us who chose to see it, and hopefully nature will help us ponder our other choices in life as well.


For instance, our return flight was delayed several hours by President Obama's visit to Utah. And while the airport was shut down as Air Force One prepared to leave the tarmac, people's responses to the inconvenience amused me.

For some of us, it was just another moment of experience in a lifetime of moments. For those of us who have learned infinite patience waiting out moment in hospitals, this was barely an inconvenience. In fact, it provided quite a side show, really. And yet for others, they could barely contain their anger and impatience. Did it get them off the ground a moment sooner? No.
...
So it is all a matter of perspective. Whether you are butterfly or bird watching, enjoying the rain on a desert or seeing Wild Burros on free range. Life is an amazing adventure, and I can't wait to share a few more of our adventures in the Southwest with you.