Desert Rain--Notes from the Road...

We're traveling in New Mexico this week, a bit of a family vacation. Thought I'd bring you all along on a few hi-lights and insights of the road.

The drive from San Antonio to Las Cruces, NM is a very familiar one to us. We make it 2-3 times a year. I have every last rest stop memorized. Besides one little mishap a few years ago when high wind resistance resulted in running out of gas (now, THERE's a story!), the drive has always been one without much drama. Basically, you hit I-10, pop in a good book on CD, and go. For this drive, we listened to Bob Newhart's I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This. Part memoir, part comedy routines--all wonderful.

So, there's this stretch of road right in the dead middle between Fort Stockton and Van Horn where, I kid you not, it is always raining. Always. Every trip. Sometimes a little rain, sometimes hail storms. But you can smell it coming on--nothing quite like the smell of rain in the desert, lovely. You see a grayish sky approaching--if you're driving it an sunset there's some purple--and that rain is every bit as much a landmark as the Tee-Pee KOA and Allison Road.

For me, this year, that rain was such a welcome sight. We've had such drought in San Antonio--nary a drop in what seems like months. But I think about the people who live there. Granted, I don't think there are many, but there are a few little bits of human occupancy off in the distance, and I wonder if the rain is as constant as I imagine it to be? Yet, what for them might be a never-ending drudgery is such a moment of refreshment for those that travel past their little spot in the world.

Think about this--we all have a little something raining around our life, and what we see from day to day might not seem all that special. But trust me. There will always be others that come traveling through, looking for refreshment. Be aware of what you have to offer. Be somebody's rain in the desert.

I'll let you all know if it's raining there on the way home...