“Adjusting to a New World”
— Susan Maddy J.
May 8, 2023 (sitting in my side yard, early morning, AZ)
Surrounded by a chorus of birds, each singing their own song,
I can hear and see young ones testing their wings.
They are still peep-peep-peep’ing for momma or poppa
while wobbling on branches and pecking at unopened flower pods.
It’s just the trial-and-error of making their way in a new world.
Sooner or later, instinct will guide them to what they need.
Spring is about gone.
March n’ April winds stole blossoms from orange trees much too soon. Instead of several bushels of fruit per tree, we’ll be lucky to fill even one bushel from all three.
Sad? Yes. But the trees are likely to appreciate a change in routine.
Thanks to the unexpected thinning, they may thrive through the challenging desert summer, not merely survive.
Neighbors who experienced air conditioner breakdowns last month when temperatures unseasonably topped one hundred have been thinned, too…
The unexpected emptying of cash in their wallets wasn’t something they wished or planned for.
Yet, because of it, they’re prepared for the challenging summer ahead and won’t feel that terrible strain in the midst of even worse conditions.
Hubby and I, too, are thinning out for the summer,
but at least for us, it’s by choice.
We’re limiting unnecessary calories so we might lose a little weight, have more energy after a springtime bout of Covid,
and perhaps better survive our hottest month–June–
and the heavy humidity of a July-thru-September monsoon.
It’s been an adjustment to live in Arizona–summer especially.
Oddly, the desert summer reminds me of winters in New York.
It’s my “inside time,” my “down time,” my “special project time,” my “off season for a reason” time.
It’s my “don’t go out of the house unless it’s absolutely necessary” season… just without the snow.
I’d have thought I’d spend the whole summer in the pool, but I don’t volunteer to swim in the pool during the day. I wait. I allow the sun to dip below the horizon and then I dip myself, sometimes in near one-hundred-degree water, just before turning in for the night.
After seven or so years living in Arizona, I’ve adjusted.
It now feels natural.
As if by instinct, I think we all adjust and find our way wherever we live. Eventually, we find what we’re looking for. At the very least, we find what we need.
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Susan Maddy J 