Thoughts on Location

I've come to beleive that where one lives makes a great impact on their life. Not on happiness or sadness per say, but more on the way one's life is directed.

For example there are places where fresh fruit is grown all year round, others where there is barely a growing season.

In some places it is important to hide out in the summer, in others in the winter.

Moving to Tucson this past month has been quite an adventure. It is the desert in a way that Phoenix never was. Sage brush and cacti are far more common than people but the thing I was most surprised about was how many things thrive here. I always thought of the desert as a wasteland, but have come to find it is quite the oasis, only I'm not sure if it is quite the kind of oasis I will ever grow too fond of. You see- the things that thrive here are prickly, dull, likely to sting or bite and like to leave sharp spines in your fingers. Even the weeds are more prickly. I saw a scorpion scampering about the other day, and only last night we saw this little fellow. A javelina- Arizona's answer to a wild boar. He was just wandering around the neighborhood, like a stray bunny.
I commented to John that we surely lived in a mystical place, like no where I have ever seen. Boars, snakes and scorpions are so far out of my comfort zone, they aren't even in my field of thought. But I won't deny it- there is something magical about it all. A whole group of animals and plants that seem to thrive in a hot prickly world.

Surely if they can, I can learn to as well. I think one of the best lessons in food and life is to embrace where you are and what it brings. Become a part of the location instead of trying to make it something it's not. And I look forward to the fruits of living here, I do love having a year round growing season.

Any thoughts on where you live and what that means to how you live or what you eat?