A Southwestern Christmas

Ah yes, the feeling of “Navidad” is in the air here in the Southwest. The University of Arizona students will be heading home for the holidays here in a few weeks, and the cacti and palm trees in some of the front yards in our neighborhood have already begun sporting colorful lights. Although I can almost guarantee this Christmas isn’t exactly going to be a white one, I think I can deal with 80 plus degree weather in December without too much complaining. I will admit wearing a t-shirt and shorts while singing carols doesn’t feel quite right though.
The other Borderland YAVs and I spent this past long weekend working and camping out at the Cascabel Community Christmas fair in (who woulda thunk it??)- Cascabel, Arizona. Cascabel is about 2 hours away from and about 20 degrees cooler than Tucson. Each year during the first week of December, they put on a 48 hour festival complete with local food, artisans, vendors and musicians aplenty. There is everything from chili pepper wreaths to pumpkin empanadas for sale. The first day alone when I worked the parking lot, over 1500 participants were counted.
Apparently, they also have a ridiculous bee problem this time of year. Working only a few hours at the baked goods stand let me experience what the inside of a bee hive might look and feel like. There were just too many bees to ward off, and unfortunately during the unending fight, we lost a spice cake and a pumpkin pie to the enemy. They nested into the icing and crust and literally began drilling little holes for themselves. We tried putting cups of sugar water and empty pie tins nearby to draw them away from the “for sale” items, but it ended up only attracting more. We had to start giving disclaimers to customers before consumption of the sweets with helpful advice such as “Make sure to scrape ALL the bees off before you eat that cupcake, little boy” and “Actually, that’s not a chocolate chip, sir.” At one point, as I was handing a man a piece of pecan pie, we counted 3 bees on the plate and 4 on the actual pie. In fact,
sometimes I feel as if I can still hear them buzzing… waiting to let us surrender over another spice cake or 2.
But enough about bees, I am now going to (smoothly?) transition this post over to be slightly more holiday related. Bear with me…
Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud, an astronaut, spoke about the beginning of his journey into space by saying- “The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day, we were aware of only one Earth.”
As the holiday season quickly approaches, it is good to remind ourselves that no matter where we live or where we come from, we are all human; all children of God. Working with the homeless and immigrants during this time of year is proving to be emotionally difficult for me. Most of them don’t have anyone around here to turn to or anywhere to go during this family-centered time of year, and it makes me sad. While everyone around them is spending quality time with relatives and friends, they are constantly reminded of their lack of meaningful relationships. I guess what I’m asking for more than anything is for everyone to not forget about those struggling during this month, pray for them… keep them in your hearts. As a friend of mine has said several times- “Somos un solo mundo. Somos un solo corazón.” (We are one world. We are one heart.
Through my experiences already this year, I’m learning things about myself that I might not have been able in most other circumstances for years to come. Though it may sound crazy to many people, I would rather feed my soul than my bank account. If I’m doing what I love and feeling fulfilled, 10 times out of 10 I would rather have a big smile on my face than a big paycheck in my wallet. Maybe it’s simply just my lack of years on this Earth that are talking, but I really just feel like one of the things I know for sure about this life is that money is not the key to happiness, relationships are. There is just too much evidence to argue against that. Happy holidays everyone, and may the world keep spinning after December 21st of this year.