Pincushion Summer

So it rained two weeks ago three times, big short storms with lightning and pouring rain.  All the low spots in my garden filled with water and the washes were full.

These days of summer rains are when the gods walk in the desert lands.  If you have ever been out in the desert when a sudden storm comes along seemingly out of nowhere and you have nowhere to go except to endure the rain you will know exactly what I mean.  The gods walk in the desert when it rains.

The Pincushion cactus always flowers shortly after the rain in the summer, and sure enough, they did this time as well.



It has been so dry this past year that even many of the cactus and tough desert shrubs are dying, but not the Pincushions.  I admire their hardiness and their ability to flower at short notice. 




I think there is a message in this, the Pincushion Cactus is a wise teacher.

Enjoy the rains when they fall, enjoy the moments in our life when happiness and joy find us.  Endure through the drought, but don't let the long drought stop us from feeling the joy when those moments arrive.  This is how my life is in the last ten years, a never ending cycle of bad times and short periods of such grand joy that I feel like bursting with flowers, too.



I think I turned into a cactus and didn't realize it.

When I look closely at the Pincushion, I see myself as if in a mirror.



I'm waiting for the joy to come raining down, I know it will come again.  And when it does, you will recognize it by the ring of bright flowers sprouting from my head.

No wonder why I am so quick to smile when I am happy.

I'm a Pincushion Cactus.



Note:  Photos are of flowers from this land I call my garden, there are so many of them, probably hundreds of these little cactus sheltered under the shrubs and trees on this one little plot of land.