Whether the flesh is forgotten or the mind becomes doubly sensitive to its prickings, whether the spirit grows drowsy or gains in lucidity, the desert is first and foremost a mirror in which one can see the world and maybe also glimpse the face of God. The only certainty is that sooner or later you will see yourself.

These hours of the desert night, unsoftened by mild moonlight, have always seemed to me somehow terribly lonely, cold, and cruel … That night I did not feel as though I were looking up into the universe, but as though a new dimension had become visible and lay beneath me. I had the dizzying sense of plunging downward into infinite space. The merciless sensation of the coldness of space, of the vast void out there, was intensified by the absolute stillness of the desert night until it became inhuman, unbearable.

Heaven knows that flood can be frightening enough. But … The dust is different … It does not bring the sharp, quick, desperate terror of flood, but instead a slow, chilling, and pervasive horror, perhaps out of keeping with any immediate damage, but right enough in the long run.