the saguaro

Last month we spent a week traveling down to AZ to see my parents and some friends from college and the Grand Canyon. Oh, it was fabulous and sunny.

We spent one morning in the Saguaro National Park near Tucson. The desert is not nearly as barren as cartoons make it seem. The landscape was peppered with bright yellow and purple flowers, barrel cacti topped with blooms, tall spindly bushes with bright red flowers on the tips like a paintbrush dipped in color, and of course, the magnificent Saguaro rising above them all. It was incredible and beautiful.

We took a nature trail lined with information about the desert ecosystem and we found it all fascinating. For instance, we learned the Saguaro provides shelter and nourishment for wildlife and defends itself very well once grown. But in its infancy, it will often begin to grow in the shade of a nurse tree until it acclimates to the desert sun and heat. As it grows, the nurse try dies, both because of its age and because they compete for resources.

After that, I found myself noticing over and over again how often a younger cactus was next to a smaller tree. The older ones too often had evidence of such a tree nearby. Suddenly, they became as magnificent and beautiful to me as the towering Saguaro itself.

 I, too, am sheltering, nurturing, and giving my all to the development of others. It is exhausting. I bear the brunt of the wind and the heat to protect them and allow them to flourish. It is often thankless. The nurse tree is hardly the subject of photographs and paintings and poetry. But it is noble. Like the great cactus, they will be an intricate and vital part of their community. They will stand tall with greatness. They will be able to withstand the heat and defend themselves against those that seek to destroy. And that wouldn't be possible without the sheltering, life-giving, nurturing, quiet role of the nurse tree by its side.