Wickenburg

I’m writing this from a viewpoint outside our Airbnb in the cow town of Wickenburg. My view is of the desert where the saguero cactus stands tall and stately. It’s 75 degrees farenheit versus 22 degrees in NYC. The view from our apartment bedroom window in Queens will be of rooftops piled with snow. NYC is having the long winter. We’re glad we’re here.

Last Thursday morning we rolled our suitcases to the subway. We rode to the AirTrain and it carried us into JFK for the long flight to Phoenix. It seemed surreal to have lunch outdoors at a picnic table after we landed.

There’s something else about being here that is different from our lifestyle at home. Here, we get to be with our peers. Among the NYC mission staff, we’re the elders. At the Snowbirds’ Senior Breakfast, where we were around 40 people, Laurence and I were some of the younger ones.

The fellowship with old and new friends and family has been special! The Southwest draws a different group of people than we mix with in the East, and I’m having a hard time with remembering names. However, meeting up with friends from another desert and another time has been wonderful. (We lived in the Owyhee Desert when we were first married and left a part of our hearts there.)

As a city girl, I feel out of place in a town where the style is to wear a cowboy hat. A gate creaks and a donkey snorts behind me. One day, a wild burro stuck its nose right into our rolled down car window. Laurence celebrated his 67th birthday on a dock beside Lake Pleasant. Today, we hiked at Bell Rock in Sedona. Tonight, we’re invited to a picnic. Tomorrow, after Senior Coffee, we’re going to Tucson.

Yesterday, we went to church. Twice. The mission church in NYC is our favorite place. But I felt so safe and secure last evening with the congregation here. The church at Phoenix is a refuge in the desert.

God bless you where you are. Berniece