It Snowed Yesterday
Watching snow fall is one of my favorite pleasures in life. Gazing out the window as the snowflakes slowly drift their way to the ground below, fills my being with an immense amount of joy to witness.
Some people may not feel the same way as me because they lived in snow, day in and day out. They were relegated to shoveling driveways and having snowy slush all over everything. I can see why they don’t share the same sentiments as I do.
I used to be that way with palm trees.
Being born and raised in Florida, never even leaving the state until I was nineteen; I saw a lot of palm trees. You couldn’t go outside without seeing one within 100 feet. They didn’t stand out to me anymore because they were literally everywhere, becoming a mundane thing in my life that I rarely took notice of.
The first thing we did after we moved into our bus, Blue Betty; was head to Colorado to see the Rockies. On our first year of travel, we spent the majority of it out west. The landscape from Colorado west is something you can only truly experience when you see it in person. Utah looks straight out of a Star Wars set. Out of Arizona’s rocky earth grows twenty foot tall majestic saguaros. In Wyoming, the Grand Tetons have a magical presence towering about the earth around them.
Because these places were new to me, a first-time experience, I saw the beauty in them. I appreciated every tiny detail, I marveled in their magic. The mundane to locals became the beauty to me. I felt so at-home in each of these places; more at home than I’d ever felt in Florida.
This winter/spring, we spent 4 months in the Arizona desert. Three of those months we spent in Quartzsite; camping completely off-grid, generating our own power, collecting our waste, and holding fresh water on board. The weather pounded us with dust storms and harsh winds. We were in an isolation of sorts, a cocoon phase, I’d called it.
After just picking up our completely-paid-for-unfinished bus, we needed to be isolated. We needed to allow the winds of the desert to help us shape our new path forward and we couldn’t do that surrounded by people.
After our three months of solitude, that weather was becoming less windy and more HOT. After we saved up a little bit of money, we moved to a campground in Phoenix for the month of April. We were grateful to be connected to water and not having to generate our own electricity for a little while. In arriving in Phoenix, something caught my eye and attention…
Palm trees, everywhere.
I took a moment, as we were driving down this tall palm tree lined road, to really see them. They were so tall and skinny, maybe 25 feet in the air. These particular ones produced dates and their fronds were floating in the light afternoon breeze. “Palm trees really are such unique a tree. You don’t see these in very many places.” I thought.
My awareness drifted back to my time in Florida and how I took those trees for granted. I was used to them always being there, they became ordinary and blended into the background. Never pausing to take time and notice the simple and profound things around me. Florida’s subtle beauty was always there, I just didn’t have the ability to see it.
Traveling in a bus for over 5 years, travel has given me that sight I needed to see the beauty in the mundane. I can now appreciate the magic of those palm trees and of my years spent in Florida.
Now, as I gaze out at these snowflakes falling down in mid-May, I look at them with gratitude. May is my birthday month and it’s such a treat that I get to witness nature doing one of my favorite things. I could spend my time upset that it’s cold, slushy, and gloomy instead of being a fresh, green, and inviting spring day; but then, I am reminded of the palm trees again and having gratified for the moment I am in and the nature I am surrounded by. I could curse the palm trees for not giving me enough shade, or I could appreciate their beauty and the fruit they bear; the universe providing me with a moment to pause and rest in gratitude.
🫶jenn
P.S. what’s something you feel has faded into the background of your life that you could find beauty in right now?
P.P.S. I’m so grateful you’re choosing to spend your time with me today.
P.P.P.S. I love you
