The Beauty of Northern New Mexico.
So many gorgeous memories.
The little old adobe house where I have lived for the last twelve or so years has been sold. My neighbor and – well, I thought friend because I’ve known him for longer than I lived here, but let’s say: acquaintance, bought it and is asking me to move out. He is a successful teacher of a popular movement therapy, he actually teaches teachers, and he’s planning to offer two retreats next summer for his students who will stay in this house. So, I’ll have to go. Since I have no idea yet where I’ll end up, I thought this would be a good opportunity to take stock of my time in New Mexico.
We humans have this habit; we assume that tomorrow will be quite similar to today. Not necessarily so! Once I realized that, I felt less threatened by an unknown future. Because it’s ALWAYS unknown, we just don’t think about it.
I moved from Berkeley to New Mexico in 2000. My daughter started Graduate School in Boston, and I was getting tired of the noise and the traffic and the high energy in the San Francisco/Bay Area. “Are you nuts? You’re moving to the desert?” – this was the common reaction. But I knew better; I had visited friends in Santa Fe and couldn’t get enough of the landscape with its breathtaking colors, bizarre rock formations, majestic forests, Alpine meadows, wide-open mesas, and lots of rivers and lakes and creeks. And the sky! It was enormous, so blue it looked almost shiny, with majestic but soft puffy clouds. At night one could see the Milky Way, something that just wasn’t possible in Berkeley.
I found a house in Abiquiú, a small village made famous by the artist Georgia O’Keeffe who had moved there permanently from New York in 1949. I lived right by the Chama River, right by a bosque (Spanish for “woodlands”) which is home or stopover for a delightful variety of ducks, geese, herons, hawks, owls, woodpeckers, and lots of other wildlife. In June the lightshow of the dancing fireflies was simply magic.
Nearby is Plaza Blanca, the “White Place”, with its dramatic rock formations and hoodoos. I always felt an especially warm and embracing energy there. One feels transported into a mystical fairytale landscape with fantastic inhabitants.
About 15 miles north is Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived before she built her house in Abiquiú. The 21,000 acre landscape with towering rock formations and colorful canyons is owned by the Presbyterian Church. Chimney Rock, Box Canyon, and Kitchen Mesa are some of the fantastic hiking trails, easy to moderate.
One the way back one drives by Abiquiú Lake, a lovely spot for swimming and kayaking.
A few years later I moved to Coyote, an even smaller village. The mesa above is right outside of my house.
Some years ago we climbed all the way to the top — this is the view we had!
The Santa Fe National Forest has many Aspen trees which turn bright yellow in the fall.
Fall colors can be stunning indeed. Right where I live. And one can hike everywhere.
Not quite the desert, isn’t it!
Stunning pictures. Thank you for sharing your home with us. I may make a trip thru northern NM this summer so it's good to know about these places. If you're still around maybe I can stop by and say hi.
I hope your life holds new delightful adventures in some magical landscape somewhere.
I especially liked the view of the Chama River valley. There must have been an ancient civilization around there and maybe there still is.
Well I guess we're all ancient if you want to count our immigrant ancestors but not exactly in possession of our heritage. Capitalism and American democracy is about all we've got to show for it and some strange permutated ungodly religions.
I feel particularly dispossessed these days, probably because I am.
By the way the Presbyterian church also owns and manages an enchanted piece of land here in the San Antonio river headwaters called the Sacred Glade, or atleast that's what I call it. I made a video poem about https://youtu.be/2X_RXc6wTkU : )
I want to bisit