Wind, a Double-edged Sword - Sculpting Beauty or a Force of Destruction

Kayenta - Sunni's Photo's

Snow Canyon State Park - Sunni's Photo's

Living in the desert, we are subject to windstorms, but without those brutal winds, we wouldn’t have all the carved, red rocks around us. The sweeping beauty of the canyons and sheer cliffs of rock walls rise up out of the desert plain, sagebrush, and cactus keeping them company. It took thousands of years to carve the beauty all around us. Without the wind, we would only have lumps of red, black, and cream-colored mountains to look at, all smooth and not near as intriguing as they are now. Amazing places like the Grand Canyon wouldn’t exist without the help of the wind. Therefore, looking from this angle, the wind is a good thing.

Grand Canyon National Park - Sunni's Photo's

Bryce Canyon National Park - Sunni's Photo's

Bryce Canyon National Park - Sunni's Photo's

However, I don’t relish it blowing 60 MPH in the dead of winter, when I have to go out and recover the poor plants I’m trying to protect, without freezing to death while doing it.

Free Clipart

It can also cause quite a mess when it brings blowing sand to clean up later. However, even this has its own beauty as I can look out my window and see it rippling across the desert in red-colored sheets.

In its milder version, wind becomes a breeze that can cool us on a hot summer day when a gentle puff of air is a relief. This can be as welcome as a tall glass of icy lemonade.

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Free Clipart

Without the wind we could never fly a kite or drift around in a hot balloon, once we got over our fright of floating around up there in a basket that only comes up to your thigh. Someday I will post that story.

Bushes would have to stay wherever they sprang up because nothing would be around to uproot them and carry them away to a different location.

Wind can also be a destructive force when it takes the form of a hurricane or tornado, ripping across the land leveling infrastructures, destroying homes, and taking human lives. Every year certain parts of the country fall victim to this destructive force of nature.

Flooding from Hurricane Damage

As people going about our daily lives, we probably never give much thought to the wind, unless it directly affects us in some way. The wind always draws my attention to it all the time because it’s a part of living in the desert.

We have had the barbecue almost blown off the patio a few times. It has blown over heavy medal chairs that have fallen and broken things and has blown with such gusto as to move a cargo trailer we have parked on the side of the house. One time it even took the trashcans and beat over $300 worth of damage into my husband’s truck. We now keep a chain around those cans at all times. Everyone in our neighborhood has lost things to the wind, blown away into the desert and probably miles away.

On one occasion, a dust storm came up while I was at the grocery store. By the time I loaded the car and got in, my mouth was full of gritty sand.

Maybe this post will be a reminder to some of just how much things in nature can affect us everyday.