As far as I am concerned Phoenix is the desert. Hot, dry and arid, it makes for a fun and interesting place to be. There is little need to check the weather report because the weather is just about the same every day. I was really starting to get used to it. So when I showed up this week, boy, was I in for a surprise. On what looked to be ordinary Phoenix days the skies darkened a black that I had never seen and the rain came down at a pace that made a fire hose look like a drip from a faucet. The rain was falling in inches per minute, streets were instantly flooded and the monsoon (as I came to understand) was upon us. I thought that monsoon’s happened only on the other side of the world.

And so to satisfy my Learning quotient on my THPL journey a little bit of research was required. I found out that the monsoon is indeed a seasonal/yearly event in the Phoenix area, and that the monsoon’s are large-scale sea breezes which occur when the temperature on land is significantly warmer or cooler than the temperature of the ocean. Different air pressures create instability and reduce the air’s ability to hold water and this causes the significant precipitation over the land. Essentially the sky is literally dropping water on the land. Fully, well maybe, educated on the topic I am heading back east to the more “ordinary” summer thunderstorms; happy to know that I survived a monsoon and did not have to travel to India to see one. I was also reminded that every time you travel you have the opportunity to learn something. It truly validates why the THPL way is all about the journey……physically, emotionally and spiritually. How else would we find fulfillment were it not for the journey?

Loving life and surviving the monsoon.

Ciao

Joe