I'm in Charge of Celebrations

Book excerpt: 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."