8736

I’m fortunate enough to have a great view from the 11th floor.  One thing that continually amazes me is how green Phoenix is when you look at it from an elevated point of view.  There are so many trees that it almost appears tropical save for the mountains rising like islands out of a green sea.  It doesn’t seem as lush from ground level, but from here I see green all the way to Camelback mountain (I have a view looking ENE towards Scottsdale and Paradise Valley from mid-town). To be honest, lately I feel most at peace when glancing out the window from my office.  Down below life seems so drab.  The brown landscape is somewhat depressing. While exotic in its own right, especially to those that aren’t used to it, I find the desert barren and lackluster.  Maybe it’s the heat.  I rather enjoy the spring and fall here as far as the weather goes, and quite honestly I don’t remember a recent winter where a sweatshirt didn’t suffice to keep me comfortable outside, but the monotony of another long, drawn out summer surrounded by parched land is taking its toll on me.  I think perhaps it is taking its toll on the populous as a whole.  Everyone here seems so one dimensional., so baked into their being and stagnant.  However from my perch, I see…change.   I see where an oasis has been created.  I see that we don’t have to accept things as they are and that existence can be manipulated.   I also think that maybe life is the same way.  Maybe I need to step back and view it from a different perspective in order to notice it isn’t as drab as the surface up close suggests.  Perhaps it’s the want to experience different things that makes my situation seem so mundane.  I know we are given a brief time on this ride, and I want to see and experience as many facets of life as I can, not be anchored to one location, one way of life.  Alas, our species doesn’t seem to agree.  We are no longer nomadic in our existence.  We plant ourselves and grow roots.  I struggle with this as well.  I like having a “home base,” a place to establish my collection of trinkets and possessions collected over time.  In fact, I am feeling somewhat contradictory as I hate having my routine affected.  It disturbs my day.  I’m a creature of habit.  If I don’t get up, shower, eat breakfast, and drive to work in that order my day is filled with angst, it just isn’t right.   But I’m not referring to a daily routine here so much as a life routine. I get a daily routine.   Life routines however, I’m at odds with. I simply don’t understand how one can live one way and at least not want to experience something different.  Even if it’s as minute a change as climate, the experience of something different than the norm has to be exhilarating on some level.   As my thoughts wander, and my job beckons, I will leave any further ramblings until next time.