Looking across a parched valley to an apparently lifeless mesa, a motorist remarked to his companion, "The poppies will never bloom again." Hitherto, winter rain and a warm spring sun had transformed the mesa into a wonderland of brilliant orange poppies with a backdrop of multicolored cacti blossoms. But a five-year drought had left the region barren and apparently lifeless.
Likewise, to his companion, the harsh outlines of the area seemed cruelly defiant of even the slightest return to its former beauty. But, rejecting and reversing the apparent lifelessness, she replied: "Oh, the poppies will bloom again! Beauty expresses Life, and Life's idea is the seed within itself. It appears where least expected."
The following winter brought abundant rain. When spring came, the mesa, warmed by the desert sun, burst into life. Acres of poppies, intermingled with the beautiful blossoms of the cholla, ocotillo, prickly pear, cat's-claw, and other species, appeared in unusual abundance. Silhouetted against the distant blue peaks, the somber saguaro looked like gaily dressed sentinels manning their stations in the foothills. The loveliness of Life was now mirrored forth in beauty humanly incomprehensible before.
