Valley of the Death

Driving through the desert rarely provides visual stimulation. It's interesting at first because it is very different from what most people (definitely me) are used to. Tumble weeds, cacti, rocks, barren ground. When you drive through the desert after an unseasonably wet winter, the desert is green! The Joshua trees have bright leaves. The ground is covered in green growth. And then there are the flowers. Yellow, purple, white, red, orange. You have to look closely, they are still sitting close to the ground - except for the white which grow tall and proud, there flowers hovering over the ground like butterflies. Fields of yellow, similar to the poppy scene in the Wizard of Oz, except that these flowers don't cause one to pass out. Instead, you are invigorated with the possibility of hope and life and growth. "They" are saying this is the bloom of a century. If you can get there, do it now. Go. Don't hesitate.