A month in Arizona

It's hard to believe that I've been nearly a month here in Arizona! I'm getting to know the area and finding my way around. Flagstaff is both a larger and smaller community than I remembered. It has the feel of a small mountain community and yet has the ammenities of a larger city like Boulder, with the university, stores, hospital and open attitudes.

The hospital sits like a grand lady on the hill with its copper roof shining in the sun. The facility serves all of northern Arizona. After two weeks of hospital and new grad orientation, I feel that the decision to come here was a great one. I've recieved superb training so far and am impressed with the hospital's focus on education and training for staff. Everyone I've met has been helpful and nice, the facility superb and the unit I will be working on, Mothers and Infants, looks to be fantastic. The next two weeks will be focused training in OB nursing and then I begin working on the floor with my preceptor! I can't wait!

Between winter weather ~ snow! ~ and starting at the hospital, I haven't had a lot of opportunity to explore the area, but I did get to drive to Phoenix one day and spent an afternoon in Sedona, which is 20 miles or so south of Flagstaff. For those of you who haven't been here, Flagstaff sitsat 7,000 feet elevation at the base of the San Francisico Peaks, of which Mount Humphries at 12,000+ feet is the highest point in Arizona. Flagstaff sits in the largest contiguous Ponderosa Pine forest in the world, a fact they make much of here. This ponderosa plateau continues for about 15 to 20 miles south where it drops a level ~ probably a thousand feet or more as well. On this next plateau, it continues with a mountainuous type terrain, but the trees are now juniper and pinon pine, rabbit brush and enormous prickly pear cactus with little else. Upon dropping another thousand feet or two, the terrain changes and becomes steep and sharp, looking very dry. Few trees here, but even in the winter,those that are here still have leaves. Lots of cholla (pronounced hoy-ya) cactus that have such an abundance of cream colored spines that at first one mistakes them for blooms of some kind. Now there are saguarro cactus that reach for the sky with their angular arms, scruffy rabbit brush and sage at their feet. Dropping another thousand or two feet, one enters the exceedingly flat plain that Phoenix sits on. Sparse vegetaion ~ more saguarro and cholla, ocassional agave, and others. Here, short, sharp, dark peaks rise from the flat desert floor in an landscape that looks like what I'd imagine the moon to look like if it had vegetation. Upon entering Phoenix, one is startled by the palm trees, orange trees bowing under the weight of fruit laden branches, the blooms of bouganvilla and other plants and the warmth. After all, Flagstaff was snowy and cold, but here it feels like summer. Amazing that all this can take place within the span of a two hour drive.

Sedona too, is a whole other world. I visited on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The road from Flagstaff to Sedona winds steeply down Oak Creek Canyon. Even in winter, one can tell that this is a lush green canyon, an oasis in a desert land. Enormous sycamore trees and oak, mostly scrub, line the creek. The closer one gets to Sedona, the redder the rocks and the more the rocks predominate the landscape. As the vista of Sedona opens up, the rocks take on majestic proportions and color. It isn't hard to understand why people feel that Sedona is a special place. All the same, it makes me glad that the Navaho have protected Monument Valley and preserved the sense of sacred space there. Sedona has built up and the area is full of ostentatious homes, some tasteful, while others simply flaunt their wealth and bad taste. The town itself has done it's best to preserve the feel of the place with architecture and preventing for the most part, the building of houses right up to the base of the rocks, but it is still crowded and heavily built. While there, I felt like it was a challenge to see the rocks despite the houses and wished it had the purity of Monument Valley. It is a place where one has the potential to see the greatness of God in creation and the smallness of humankind. It strikes me that people, wanting to be "great" superimpose themselves on the great landscape, not realizing how trivial they look in the process.

That said, I hope that I have the opportunity to do some painting there and to capture some of my thoughts on canvas in the future.

This is going to be a good year ~ a great year! I can feel it in my bones and in every breath I take! My deepest thanks to each of you who have helped me get here, from the smallest bit of encouragement, to the enourmous amount of support and assistance you have given. It all has been a tremendous blessing in my life. My prayer is that it be returned to you 100 fold in this coming year.

Blessings and peace,
Lisa