Monsoon Season

 Arizona monsoon season has begun!  I've always loved a good thunderstorm, mom says I was born during a summer thunderstorm in Minnesota - maybe that's where it comes from. 

Monsoons blow into the valley really quick.  They aren't usually long lived.  They start with wind that keeps building, from a breeze to winds measured in miles per hour.  They usually blow into the valley in the afternoon and evening times.  But it's weather, you never really know for sure where and when !!  

Friday into Saturday, the thunder was so loud over my house it shook the walls and woke me up.  I thought I was back in Cali and we were having an earthquake!  Saturday night's storm was mostly wind -- very strong winds  And tonight, 6:30pm, we have winds and thunder and I'm crossing my fingers for more than just sprinkles on my car!

ASU says "a 'Monsoon' is linked more to a wind shift rather than precipitation. In fact, the name "monsoon" is derived from the Arabic word "mausim" which means "season" or "wind-shift".  This wind shift is the result of two meteorological changes:

• The movement northward from winter to summer of the huge upper air subtropical high pressure cells, specifically the so-called Bermuda High (H).
• In addition, the intense heating of the desert creates rising air and surface low pressure (called a thermal low) in the Mohave (L).

These two features combine to create strong southerly flow over Arizona. The southerly winds push moisture north-ward from Mexico. The exact source region for the moisture of the Arizona monsoon is unknown. Researchers have proposed the Gulf of Mexico and/or the Gulf of California as the source regions but conclusive evidence has so far been elusive.

While all that is a little technical, after 12 years in the Valley of the Sun, I have come to appreciate our monsoon season!  Yes, I might complain about the heat, or the humidity, and sometimes the temp, but I still like a good thunderstorm.  Always will!  

The Latest

 Sometimes days and weeks go by and I feel as if I'm so busy that I don't have time for anything else.  My days off are spent doing household chores and resting.  There's so much that keeps my mind going that I don't feel like there's any space left for anything else at the end of every day.  

Life is changing within my family.  My nephew and his family have bought a home in Arizona, and are leaving Cali at the end of the month.  This is my mom's one grandson who is the favorite.  It keeps me wondering if Mom will change her mind and move to AZ.  I'm guessing not at this point, but I also wonder if this will begin a decline for her.  Only time will tell. 

I spent my day getting the spare bed and bath cleaned up and ready for company in case they need a place to stay while they begin to get their house ready to live in.  I don't know the status of what they will move in to, what shape their house will be in when they arrive.  But I'm ready. 

Two weeks ago I visited my daughter at her new home, it was fun to see her! And gift her with things that I'd been "collecting" for her and my granddaughter.   I'l be back there again after the heat of summer. 

Training my new "boys" is slow.  I want them to absorb everything I throw at them but it isn't easy for folks who are new because we have our own slang in retail and it can be confusing!  They'll get there but it will take time.  I worry about all this training time being invested and not paying off because they want to leave for some other position.  I'm sad about this being one of the lower paid positions and yet one of the hardest to learn!  

I've been painting rocks during my down time when the mood strikes, and taking photos here and there when the mood strikes.  I'm trying to get back to more of the photography because I enjoy it ... just not in the summer heat! 

We had our first large monsoon last night, thunder so close and so loud that it shook my house and my bed.  Wish there had been more rain, but it's still early in the season.  Here is a sunset from last week, it was raining on my patio as I took the photo, Arizona sunsets are beautiful!

Bright Blessings!

Training A Refugee

 At my BigBox store, we have several new employees - and four of them are refugees from Afghanistan.  One of them is under my direct supervision, and I'm trying to train him.  But it amazes me how much has to be explained, how much of a difference there is in language and culture.  

It's amazing how much we assume because we have lived in America for most if not all of our lives.  Take for instance a bottle of Gatorade.  Here we can purchase it as a single unit, or a multipack.  How do you explain which is which to someone who doesn't know??  It takes time to explain that you can read the description - which often says "8pk" or you can do the math and think it all through.  One bottle might be 90cents to 1.50.  Then the 8pk is closer to $5.  But you have to be able to think that process through and know our monetary values as well!!     

Another example is explaining the difference between products we sell in the store vs the items we buy that enables us to do our jobs, like wheel weights for the Auto Center.  We don't sell them individually to customers, but we need them to balance a tire they may have purchased. 

Having to learn all the intricacies of a BigBox store in America while at the same time trying to understand the language, learn a new job and then learn all the slang that those of us in retail use as well must be difficult for these folks.  At the same time, it's no picnic for the rest of us trying to teach something that we grew up knowing (like those Gatorade bottles) !  

I guess the important thing this is teaching me is patience.  I dislike having to explain things that seem obvious to me, but that's my current status:   teach and train.   Every day I remind myself that this will be a good thing in the Big Picture.  Until then ..... .Lawd, give me patience!!!

Intuition

 How many times have you had a thought that prompted you to do something, but your logic tells you that maybe you shouldn't, so you don't??  We've all had those moments.   But maybe we need to learn to trust our intuition a little better ...... 

When I was in the throes of trying to find my first house to buy, a thought popped into my head as I was sleeping -- or maybe it was dreaming?  but it was the word Impala.  Now, because I also needed a a newer car, I thought The Universe was trying to tell me what kind of car to buy.  But the third house I looked at to purchase was on a street named Impala!  I bought the house, *and* I bought the Impala! It was one of those times where I listened to my gut instinct.  And it paid off. 

We are always being guided to our highest good and happiness, especially if we ask "What's next?"  What we desire is based on our yearnings, cravings, hunches, impulses and even whims.  Say you have this urge to clean the hall closet.  When you do, you find a bracelet you'd lost months before.  

How do you become more comfortable listing to, trusting, and acting upon your sense of knowing?  With practice, patience, perseverance, and gratitude.  By taking small steps, little risks, tiny chances. So listen for the little nudges, and take some little steps.  trust your gut.  It will happen for you! 

 

Romancing the Ordinary

 "Linger in the twilight of a summer's day .... "   That's a line from the book "Romancing the Ordinary" by Sarah Ban Breathnach and one of my fav reads.  I like to dive in and pick a chapter, it helps me focus on the quieter side of life, to remember that we need to take time away from the stuff that keeps us so busy and realize that the things we often overlook are the simple things that bring us the greatest joys.  

I find with my photography that this very thing comes to mind.  Every now and then, my focus turns to still lifes.  Just a simple photo can change your entire perspective.

This is a photo of a pitcher, Vernon Kilns pattern "Linda".   Simple curves of the handle and the pot against a plain background.  Still life photos serve to remind us that life sometimes moves too fast, that we can take the time to sit still.  Quiet moments of contemplation are a salve for the soul.  It reminds us that there is beauty to behold in the simple things, the ordinary items that surround us on a daily basis.  

The next time you're feeling frazzled, take ten minutes and take a look around, focus on something you haven't paid attention to in a while.  The gift of the everyday ordinary is magical.