"Here come those Santa Ana winds again"
One of the reasons I love the Santa Ana Winds is because they bring my city dwelling self a breath of my beloved Mojave. Longtime readers of heathervescent, know my love of the desert, the Mojave and the Santa Ana winds.
The first few years I lived in LA, I attuned myself to them. I lived in Mt Washington, and would wake to see the sparkling San Gabriel Mountains. That's when you know the Santa Ana's are in town. Not always hot, sometimes they carry the chilling 4am desert cold. Darkest before dawn along with the hot midday heat blowing through sweet creosote.
Many times in 2011 and 2012, I returned from transatlantic flights, to have my nostrils greeted with the hot or cool smell of the Mojave at LAX. It was the best welcome home, because I did not have much time to get into the desert directly.
These memories evoked by these swirling winds of the desert. Penetrating my heart, finding the pain, drying it's wet bloody crying to dust, blowing from my heart to join with dust in these Santa Monica Mountains, the San Gabriels and beyond.
A few weeks ago, I got home late and was giving the dog a midnight walk. Los Angeles had been cool and moist and I was wearing warmer layers. As he sniffed his usual spots, I felt a lick, a curl in my nostril - an unmistakable hot swirl of the Mojave in the cool night. Then it was gone. A few feet later, a gust caressed my face, blowing my hair gently. I tasted the breath again - it was the unmistakable Santa Ana. For the rest of the walk, I opened my body completely, experiencing the incoming Santa Ana wind, mixing, twisting with, teasing the cool marine layer. Cool ocean, hot desert. It was an equisite physical experience. Los Angeles woke up to 90 degree weather the next morning.
And when I am in the Mojave? There is the moment, the atmospheric thermocline, when I pass from not the Mojave into the Mojave - the San Gorgonio Pass. It is a hypnotic pass day or night with the wondrous wind farms mining the energy from these winds. Lazy white circulating under light, red computer LED flashing at night. Hypnotic. Magical. Science at work!
Something in me comes alive when I pass this place. When I am here, when I breathe deeply, lungs filling and refilling with the dry desert air. Wringing out all but the essence. Cutting through to break through.
Santa Ana winds I love you. Your winds lick deep into my body, goosebumps rising, blowing my hair across my face, neck, swirling up into my nostrils, into my lungs, penetrating my heart and soul. Electrifying my body. Evoking memories of the past, decades, millennium of time. Timeless in your presence.
Only the breath, the inhale, the exhale. Each a deep kiss with all my heart and soul.
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