I'm in Charge of Celebrations

Last year I gave myself one hundred and eight celebrations – besides the ones they close school for.

Byrd Baylor's text captures and shares some of the special experiences in the Southwest desert country that have inaugurated her private celebrations: The Time of Falling Stars, in the middle of August, when "every time a streak of light goes shooting through the darkness, I feel my heart shoot out of me"; Rainbow Celebration Day, marking the time she and a jackrabbit stood together watching a triple rainbow over a canyon; and the real New year's Day (January first is "just another winter day"), the day spring begins. "I celebrate with horned toads and ravens and lizards and quail... And, Friend, it's not a bad party."

Peter Parnall's extraordinary pictures illuminate the world of the desert.