Trading Green for Blue

After nearly a year of traveling around the US, debating pros and cons of relocating to any one of many desirable locations, we have finally decided that Albuquerque, NM, will be our new home.  As we are making our way this week from the East Coast to the southwest we have had the opportunity to enjoy colorful scenery along the way.  Besides seeing the trees change to their autumn color we have also marvelled at the bright green fields and lawns that we pass here in the east and midwest.  After some days of rain the skies today are clearing and the bright, blue canopy of a Midwestern sky sparkles overhead.  It occurs to me that a destination of the American Southwest will mean many days of sunny, blue skies.  But it will also mean brown, sparse desert vistas instead of bright green forests and trees.  We are trading green for blue.
I remember many years ago when I left home in Michigan after college to move to New Mexico that there was a period of adjustment getting used to the dry climate.  But when I would go back to Michigan to visit my family I remember how suffocated and closed in I felt by all the trees.  I really missed the wide open spaces of the West, not to mention how much I missed the endless stretches of days with no rain or clouds in sight.  I would tell everyone that I planned to never live anywhere east of the Mississippi.
Life has a way of making us eat our "I will never..." statements.  I couldn't have imagined in those days that I would end up spending nearly 20 years living in Virginia.  Or that I would fall so in love with Virginia's rivers, hills, forests and those awesome Blue Ridge Mountains.  But that's what happened.  And now that we make this change of residence from Virginia to New Mexico I will once again face a period of adjustment.  Virginia was so green precisely because of its moist climate.  But that means there were many days of hazy, overcast skies.  I'm anxious to once again bask in New Mexico's sunshine but I know that means a dearth of lush greenery.  Sometimes I wish we could keep circling the US endlessly so we wouldn't have to miss any of the special beauty each place offers.  But I've learned to make myself at home one day at a time and be thankful for what each day offers.  This day we get both a bright blue sky and a fresh, green landscape.