The Desert Teaches

"On your journey to your dream, be ready to face oasis and deserts. In both cases, don't stop." - Paulo Coelho

First time in 20 years this lake has existed - Merzouga, Morocco - November 2024

The poem below was written amongst the Sahara desert of both Egypt and Morocco in November of 2024.  The desert is a very intriguing place and is a lot different from what one envisions.  The majority of it looks like you were flung off Earth and landed on Mars.  The landscape is not endless sand dunes.  The dunes certainly exist but they are in patches, not swathing swarms.  It's mostly, flat, hard, dry, cracked ground just like what is found in parts of Arizona and New Mexico with random herds of wild camels sauntering about.  The desert has its own sound to it, a wispy crack of the wind blowing sand around complete with a low reverberating hum that can only be heard when one really listens.

The perception of the desert is that life cannot exist here, no way, no how.  However, all of the building blocks of life are there, just sitting, waiting for the conditions to be right.  All that is needed is for water to be added and suddenly life springs forth every which way, butterflies emerge, flamingos suddenly appear, birds swoop in, grass grows immensely fast which the camels then devour.  Once the water dries up then poof, the landscape chameleons back into appearing to not be capable of hosting life.  In reality, it's just resting, waiting for the next rains that will once again create the perfect conditions for life.

Oases in the desert are truly a sight to behold.  Pictures and videos do not do them justice.  They are not just a single palm tree with a tiny pond.  Imagine driving across the Martian landscape desert for 9 hours, seeing nothing but flat, dry ground then suddenly in front of you, the oasis town of Siwa, Egypt appears and your eyes dance at the sight of 200,000 palm trees, 70,000 olive trees, fruit trees, random ponds around town and so much more.  All supported by a hidden, underground water table that is smack dab in the middle of the Egyptian desert.  Surprisingly, the Egyptian desert is a lot different from the Moroccan desert.

In September of 2024, two months before my arrival, the town of Merzouga, Morocco received its first rain in 7 years.  They received just shy of 4 inches of rain within a 24 hour period, creating flash floods in the desert.  When I arrived in November, there were two lakes, in the desert, that still had water as a result of those rains.  For the first lake, it was the first time this lake had held water in 7 years - since the last rains.  For the second lake, it was the first time it had held water in 20 years.  The younger kids of the town did not believe that water fell from the sky because they had never witnessed it raining, until the floods of September.

Here is the poem:

Where the water flows

Life grows

Putting on a show

Allowing the land to glow

Camels to mow

Ancient knowledge we longer know

Lost to time, the desert, and being foolish

We marvel and wonder, how did they do it?

We can’t explain nor re-create yet we consider ancient civilizations to be less advanced then we are

Perhaps society is cyclical, constant peaks and valleys amongst the mountains, the tides rushing in and out, the seasons changing, or sine waves oscillating

Once flowing water came to a halt

Causing life to diminish and become stagnant

First turning into a swamp then disintegrating into nothingness

Becoming devoid of life

What has been lost can indeed be found again

Blockages need to be cleared

To yet again let the water flow freely

With flowing water comes flowing ideas

Only then will we re- discover lost techniques

What was lost can always be found

Perhaps the ideas need to find us instead of us finding them

Flowing to us via the open rivers found inside each and every person

To once again bring life, healing and abundance