Missing Arizona

Badly.  Wish it was an afternoon drive away.  I miss the sound of the crickets chirping all day and night.  I miss the smell of the dirt, especially the few minutes before and after the monsoon rolled in.  Rain pouring down in a fury, clearing out the air and bringing the summer heat to a mild simmer.  I miss the simplicity of my time there.  Waking early with the sun, fetching eggs and skipping down the drive for the daily newspaper.  Running into the house and slamming the door shut in excitement for the day and the food waiting on the table.  I miss running through the Ponderosa covered hills in search of adventure and solitude, dreaming for hours and hours.  Finding hidden treasures in the forest, picking fruit in the orchard.  Watching the baby quell stumble behind their mother with belly's so full they couldn't find their feet.  I miss my grandpa.  Going to his office at lunch to bring him down for food and cards.  He would spin me in circles while he sang "Mac the knife" at the top of his longs.  I want to suck the juices from the honeysuckle that grew on the clothes line outside the window.  Build a puzzle and listen to the hours pass by with the chime of a clock.  I want to get my hands dirty in the garden of pansies my Papa planted for my grandma.

But most of all, I miss the feeling.  The simplicity, the contentment and peace, the utter joy from the little parts of my day.  Having no worries except for how much longer the sun would be up.  It was a constant adventure of unexplored places.  Everything that reminds me of that time, crickets chirping, the smell of rain, hearing Frank Sinatra on the stereo, seeing pansies pop up in the spring, the smell of fresh muffins, my grandparents, it all makes me hungry for what I first fell in love with, the desert.