Images of the mind are created based on experiences and teachings, but there can also be an undeniable spiritual influence. For the creation of this book, I sent an e-mail to 10 people asking each person to pass along the email as they received it. Interestingly to me, the message moved quickly along one line in particular, a line of Christians throughout the country. All other lines quickly fell flat. A large amount of joy and awe were expressed in their answers to the simple question about their imaginings of a desert.

Responses looked beyond the harsh physical existence of the desert surroundings. Instead, they wrote about the Creator of the physical, the admiration for the simple complexities and the loving thoroughness in every detail and coexistence. The more that one observes, experiences, and investigates, the more unstable “scientific fact” can seem to become.

Every page of this book is someone’s personal definition or musing about what it is that makes up a desert. Interactions between pages are meant to create a dialogue deeper than what is. It is too easy to ignore the idea that we can ask the natural world questions of why, how and to what end.