“The gift is that I can always choose a life-giving perspective no matter where I am and no matter where I go. There is always beauty to celebrate. There is a gift in each moment waiting to be unwrapped and enjoyed by whoever will choose to pause and take delight in it.”
KRISTIN TOVAR, FOUNDER OF wHY i LOVE WHERE i LIVE, tUCSON, ARIZONA
It’s early October in Tucson, and we finally have been able to turn off the air conditioner, open the windows, and enjoy lovely weather. The long, hot southern Arizona summer is behind us, now.
With each passing year, I find myself less tolerant of Tucson’s torrid and drawn out summers. When temperatures are still hitting triple digits in September, following excessive heat in August, July, June and part of May, for me, it takes more internal wherewithal than I can muster anymore to keep a fully-charged, positive perspective. I don’t like living like a mole no matter how hard I try.
For a reprieve, I spent part of this summer somewhere cooler as many Tucsonans do. However, in some ways that made an upbeat perspective even more difficult upon returning in August as I tried in vain to reacclimate to the inferno. I was a lobster who had escaped the boiling pot, who tasted life as it could be, and who then threw himself back into the cooker. Ouch!
This August and September I found myself especially morose. I was homesick for a place that was not my home, and I was sick of the place that was my home. The blazing and bright sun highlighted Tucson’s imperfections and drowned out its charms.
Fortunately, reading Kristin Tovar’s recent blog post helped shake me out of my funk. It reminded me of the wisdom of accepting and honoring the present circumstances for what they are. Nonetheless the break in the weather, the resumption of outdoor living, and Tucson snapping back to the vibrant desert community that it is from fall through spring each year have reinvigorated my positive perspective much more than Kristin’s thoughtful post.
I wish I were a guru who didn’t need the crutches of desirable externalities to bolster a life-giving perspective. Alas, I am not a guru. I am but a flawed, middle-aged man who wrestles with the dichotomy between wisdom in surrendering to what is and wisdom in not surrendering to what is.
Read Kristin’s excellent post, here:
A Decade of Perspective, by Kristin Tovar, founder of Why I Love Where I Live, Tucson, ArizonaWith Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present