February's What are You Reading?

How unfair it seems that I am so happy and at peace, all the while knowing how unsettled the world is. The truth is, I cannot help myself. I’m a pilgrim blessed with silent traveling companions and in love with solitude. Our time here feels almost sacred.

Winter desert life is simple for us, and simple is good medicine. Nothing is complicated these days: not the landscape, the overwhelming broad sky, the way we eat, even the very hours of our days are uncluttered.

I have my friend Morgan to thank for further contributing to my happiness. She sent me an old paperback copy of The Desert Year by Joseph Wood Krutch.

This is my introduction to Mr. Krutch, who came to the Sonoran Desert from New England. His writing is easy to digest, and his stories are a delight. He sees the desert as a pantheist and as a fan (and biographer) of Henry David Thoreau would. He notices the little miracles others take for granted.

I’ve been rationing pages of this book because it is the perfect way to end our d…