Desert Daydreams

I'm close now. One day to go then I'll be leaving on a jet plane, and I don't know when I'll be back again. Everything this week has gone so well. I have breezed through all the checkpoints at company HQ thus far, medical, weapons quals, and security clearances. Tomorrow is Friday and with it comes the final chance for Murphy to apply his law to my long and arduous effort to get back to the desert. But I feel so strong now, nothing is going to stop me. I swear it's as if God is walking right in front of me opening doors and clearing pathways for me to stroll through.

None of the usual obstacles are here now. I am driven to succeed. I am being pushed on by a will and focus that I haven't possessed in years. I have felt for so long this urge or need to get back to the desert and it's a bit strange to be so close to finally doing it. I'm excited about what I think I am going to do there. No, no...it's nothing that I am actually going to physically do. Rather, I'm excited about what my mind is going to realize and what changes will occur in my life as a result. I am drawn back to an old quote I discovered the first time I was there. It goes:

"To the desert go prophets and hermits; through the desert go pilgrims and exiles. Here the leaders of the great religions have sought the therapeutic and spiritual values of retreat, not to escape but to find reality." -Paul Shepard

-JF