and those sun-bleached trailers are just one more thing that makes my heart break

The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants: and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate. Psalm 34:22

Thinking of desolation: maybe that strip of freeway just before you it San Diego after having passed through those very cool Algondones dunes outside of Yuma.  Nothing stinking grows there except for maybe a random creosote bush wicked black with its brittle branches and poky thorns.  Because of leaf and stem alignment, creosote bush provides little shade during the full desert sunshine. It occurs on calcareous, sandy, and alluvial soils that are often underlain by a caliche hardpan. During dry periods, creosote leaves fold in half to cut their exposure to the sun. During severe drought periods, the creosote bush drops its leaves entirely and remains somewhat dormant until adequate precipitation arrives. The creosote bush is alone in the desert because it exudes growth-inhibiting, allelopathic compounds to the soil. It can also be poisonous to livestock that are naïve enough to eat large quantities of it. However, poor palatability usually prevents animals from browsing it.  

In spite of all this, the creosote is my very favorite plant, and I used to drag classes of seventh grade biology students out to the trash-strewn wash running under the Pantano Bridge to observe and notice and draw detail-perfect scientific illustrations of my prickly friend.  The creosote emits a sweet rain smell to welcome even a hint of moisture in the air and it is tough and adaptable and nothing can kill it ever because of the long, long tap root that goes down deep, and even though it reproduces clones through a system whereby the inner stems die and new stems appear on the periphery, and a circular pattern of genetically identical plants is produced with the rings expanding outward about a meter every 500 years, it is a good picture of desolate. 

And the point of all this is that I will never be creosote bush desolate, with only an occasional isolated bedraggled and very peculiar house trailer surrounded by broken smashed-window cars that makes you wonder about who in tarnation lives there angled nearby, because even if my thoughts and hopes wander off, they will return to Him.  I am tethered by His love.  He redeems my soul.  

Selah.