Monsoon

A monsoon is a seasonal prevailing wind that lasts for several months, caused by the development of a thermal low over a land mass normally within the subtropics.

The term was first used in English in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and neighboring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area.

 The North American Monsoon occurs from late June or early July into September, originating over Mexico and spreading into the southwest United States by mid-July.

A wall of desert thunderstorms only a half-hour's drive away is a common summer sight from the sunny skies along the coast during the monsoon.

It is also sometimes called the Desert Monsoon as a large part of the affected area are the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts.

This time of year I begin to long for the changing of the season.  It can cause a feeling of uneasiness…of needing to move on…of new beginnings.  Here in the desert, the children are already back at school.  I am longing for crisp, white notebooks and new pencils.  I feel a change coming, a desire to return to a sewing machine long ignored, to crochet hooks and embroidery needles, a gathering up of aspects of me I used to be…yet not forgetting my hard-won knowledge…selective pieces of my past, brought into the present me.  I am comfortable in my 56-year-old skin. 

Hot diggity dog, it’s a wonderful life.