At Home on Azure Sky

We've been here at Azure Sky for less than a year, trading in the hustle and bustle of city life for the soft serenity of the country. I've never felt so at peace. I've never loved a place as much. It is as if this place that is my home calls to my spirit and refreshes my soul. My pleasure is in nature and the lessons it offers. Some are lessons that squeeze the heart while others make it burst with joy. And they are all part of the endless cycle we call life.

My first lesson came when we moved from the suburbs of Northern Virginia to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. It was as if we started with a blank page for learning. Our maples, dogwoods, and azaleas were traded for mesquites, palo verde, and sahuaro. Green lawns were exchanged for rocky but far from barren acres. Titmice and catbirds stayed east to be replaced by verdin and phainapepla (but we do still have mockingbirds). My gardens of peonies, iris, roses, and tulips became another's source of joy and toil. I faced an empty canvas of a cleared lot. It was a lesson of change. So much was different and I was eager to learn. So I began what I hope will be a lifelong learning journey.

We have started by reading everything we can find about life in our desert--one of the lushest and richest on the planet. It was a place that had enchanted us years ago until we were finally able to live a dream. We are finally at home--at home on Azure Sky.