Tucson: With An Olive and Twist
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Everyone has a Tucson in their life. My mind has wafted up through two-story windows --something out of a western-style interior design magazine, and, is caught in the purplish, boiling colors of the July monsoon sky moving across the Santa Catalina Mountains. Served with Southwestern panache, a martini lubricates my retrospection. I never imagined I would be here in Tucson. Tucson was a business trip. Stepping out of Tucson International, a duet of saguaro sentinels confronts you, as if a rigorous border interrogation is inevitable. These towering Sonoron Desert cacti take me aback. I’m comfortable with my lifestyle. I immediately sense this is too stark and barren here for me. After less than a week in the Tucson Valley, I knew this was a new life destination. Coveys of Gambel’s Quail scooting on the desert’s dusty floor among the thickets of prickly pear sent my heart the message to come here. With no patience for weakness in any creature, the desert is an absolute, unforgiving environment. Ironically, it is also a habitat rich in ecosystems and teaming with life. In my mid-fifties, the sporting, top-knotted quail have beckoned me to come, to transform, and to dance among the southwestern rhythms -- more vibrantly alive than ever before.
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About the Book
When you pause to really think about it, everyone has a Tucson in their lives. It is that place -- whether physical or of the heart, where one experiences breakthrough, life-defining moments. It is that situation from which you gain your greatest personal insights. My medium of self-discovery just happens to be the desert, with its earth-jolting strikes of monsoon lightning playing against a roiling, purple late summer sky. The result of my Tucson trek is bringing together this collection of short stories and poetry about discoveries of the heart and life lessons learned.
When young, one thinks that all time spans before you and there is little, if any, sense of urgency. Life can fall into the very routine. Then mid-life suddenly arrives, with its enticement of renewed spontaneity and unexpected rhythms. This is the time for the Tucson experience, with its salty, savored, olive-like morsels in life, and, sometimes, an unexpected twist or two.
About the Author
JoAn Stolley has completed a distinguished career in the information sciences, and now adds author to her experience. Writing has been an integral part of her professional and personal life. Originally a Midwesterner, Stolley has called various regions of the country home, before her decision to relocate to Tucson, Arizona.