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“Everybody needs beauty...places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul alike.”
- John Muir

A morning trek, me and her. We tromp down scruffy dirt paths, dust kicking up beneath our feet. We pass a cactus graveyard, spindly, spiked skeletons in shades of bleached gray green. We remark and wonder out loud, just how many shades of green has our God created? More than the crayon box shows us, we are certain. We stop to take pictures of dried wood signs and the needles of the cactus, and wait for the slow magic of Polaroid to develop before our eyes. The quickly dissipating dew reveals the crochet web homes of spiders, woven between branches. You like webs, she tells me. I do. The red orange yellow blooms of the lantana stand out bright. Tiny pink blossoms of springtime growth light up against the clear blue sky. We hear the high notes of birds and the clicking of bugs. We stop to watch the slow flow of resaca waters. Too soon it seems, we look at the clock and realize that it is time to return to the day's regular activities. But we are refreshed, I think, and cheered for the time together. Everybody needs beauty.