There are pros and cons to anywhere you live and that is true in the desert, where I have been residing for the past few years. One of the big fall backs for me is the outdoor color scheme. The people are great and it has always been fun to live in and learn a new culture, but the sand-colored palette affects me more than I originally realized. It’s one of those things that kinda sneaks up on you. I didn’t realize how much a mono-toned outside affected me until I had a vacation and saw grass again. That pop of natural color….good grief it made me happy. You’re more thankful for things you don’t get to see a lot, and it’s completely that for me and grass. I know it sounds ridiculous, but talk to any ex-pat desert dweller. I bet they’ll agree with me. I don’t know if it’s reminiscent of childhood summers where your bare feet were constantly going in between soft grass and the slip in slide, or its just the shock of not seeing it for a long that makes me so happy when I see a green landscape.
My patient, kind friends listen as I exclaim….”oh my goodness, it’s so green!” for the 932073207 time. To this day I can’t get over it. My last time in the States, I couldn’t stop taking pictures outside the car window of the grass and trees….beside the interstate. A few years ago my travel buddy came to my neck of the woods and we toured around the desert. At the end of the week she casually said, “I get it now….why you love green so much.” My head grew so much with pride, it nearly pushed her out of the room.
My latest vacay was to Scotland and Ireland. Yall, it almost made my brain explode. I couldn’t comprehend it!! Most of the time I can function with just staring and exclaiming about how green it is, but sometimes the urge is too great….and I just have to lay in the grass for a while. And by “a while,” I mean a really long time and have to make myself get up because it is getting dark and people passing by are looking more and more nervously at the weird girl.
Wander Susan Wonder 