Digging Deeper

It is interesting to me that the high desert of northern New Mexico seems to evoke an artistic and creative energy from its residents.  Every town I have been to seems to create in all areas of life: their parks, museums, clothing, galleries, restaurants, children’s activities, homes . 

Trading post in Cerrillos, NM

Is it the rainbow sunsets made possible by the dry desert air?  The honing of senses that must come from looking deeper for beauty within the subtle greys and browns of a desert landscape?  Is it the clarity that comes looking across the land and breathing clear air  dusted with the bittersweet scents of herbaceous plants?

Cross on mountain outside Cerrillos, NM

And why does this land call to me? 

I have thought recently of what I want for the educational experience of my children and of myself.  I have heard education defined as the act of drawing forth what is already in a person.  I like this definition because I find it to parallel my experiences of learning.  It often feels as if the information is already there, waiting for me to recognize it in my own beautiful way.  The time I learn most and best, losing track of time, is when I am doing something new and fresh.  And so I desire a form of learning which incorporates many new experiences, experiences which are alive and brimming with the energy of that which I desire to learn.

Noelle in the lap of Lioness sculpture

So what  do I believe is being brought forth during these experiences?  It seems there are deeper truths abiding in everything.  It is our human experiences in this world which lead us to these truths.  The truths we discover seem to be different for each person depending on what is most relevant to their life at that moment.  And so for me, experiencing a vast array of life becomes the crux of everything, it is how I grow and learn.  This type of lifestyle has the possibility of becoming one exciting experience after another without a whole lot of connection or deeper revelation  made.  It is the looking for the deeper meaning behind these experiences, asking what this moment is trying to reveal, this is what I want to experience with my children.

The experience of growing a garden is not just about how the earth makes life, although this is fascinating in and of itself.  But the deeper, more relevant meaning for me is how consistent and careful care can make something beautiful.  Playing sports is fun and exciting, but the deeper truth for me lies in the unity that comes from working together toward a common goal.  The unity a community experiences when they focus on this goal as well.  The observation of  what the physical body can do and the perfection with which it is made was enough to inspire Da Vinci for a lifetime.

Sterling in Albuquerque Children’s Fantasy Garden

There are many of these truths to be unearthed.  Nature provides a bounty.  Today though, I am asking myself what is the deeper truth in art that draws me to the communities which embody it?

Noelle builing a fairy house       Noelle making Andean Dance Cape

I believe for me it is the witnessing of the creative spirit, the ability and desire to bring beauty to this world as a human.  Could this be part of  our overall collective destiny?  To make whatever we find more beautiful?  When I was young I would wonder whether the world was worse off for the existence of the human species.  But when I look upon beauty created by human hands, there is painted for me a different picture, a different story.  The artist says to me with every inspired creation

Sterling putting on his first puppet show

“Here, here is what we are made for.  Look at how beautiful life is.  Look how I can bring my own beauty to enrich it even further.”

And as I look longer, I hear these whispered words

“What beautiful spirit, do you want to bring forth?”

Lucky Penny

I happened across a bit of serendipity yesterday.  A couple of days ago we went to the zoo.  There was a souvenir penny machine there.  Noelle thought the crank was way awesome, so we made a penny.  In the gift shop there was a souvenir penny collecting book.  Well, being the collection making coin hunting man her father is I thought this is right up our alley. 

On the back was imprinted a website, pennycollector.com.  It is a database of all the souvenir penny machines in the world.  Oh man.  It’s on. 

There are three in Santa Fe.  Two are in historic chapels, one being the oldest church in the United States.  I was hesitant about bringing Noelle, but you have to go where the penny collecting machine takes you.  So Stephen dropped her and I off at the first chapel, the Loretta Chapel.  Tucked into a shadowed nook by the entrance was a tree draped in a rainbow of rosarys.  I was a bit in awe of its beauty.  Quietly blowing in the wind hung testaments of people’s prayers offered humbly and reverently in front of this little adobe chapel.  I think Noelle was as taken by it as I was. 

We went into the chapel next, and Noelle slid quietly into a pew and looked around the church.  I forgot how breathtaking the art and majesty are in these old cathedrals.  It is enough to render even a three year old speechless. 

Behind us stood the miraculous spiral staircase.  This is what draws a quarter million visitors a year to this church.  It is not held up by any supports and architects and engineers marvel at its perfection.  The story is that the nuns who moved into the chapel could not use the ladders to the choir loft, so they prayed to St. Joseph for someone who could build them a staircase.  A man showed up at their door 9 days later and built this architectural marvel, and disappeared as quickly as he came.  There are three mysteries associated with the staircase: no one knows who built it, no one knows exactly how it is done, and no one knows where the non native wood came from. 

After sitting longer than I was expecting to be able, we went to the gift shop where the penny making machine was said to hide out.  Noelle loves gift shops.  She is really careful to respect all the delicate pieces in them.  I forget sometimes how grown up she has become.  I usually have to cater our activities to what Sterling can handle, and so this was a wonderful and refreshing surprise to me to see how much she enjoyed such a quiet and reverent experience. 

We looked at all the angels and statues.  She is especially taken by Mary.  She wanted a saint’s card of her picture and a rosary, specifically a red rosary.  I told her Grandpa’s birthday is coming and he really likes all these beautiful things because he goes to a church like this one where he lives.  She was especially excited to find some things she thought he might like . 

On our way out we hung a rosary in memory of my father on the beautiful tree.

We walked a block down to the San Miguel Chapel, the oldest church in the country.

  On the way Noelle stopped to marvel at glass sculptures, pottery fountains and hats, needing only an occasional reminder to just look. Visitors from the churches would stop to talk to her about her penny collection, and she would hold five minute conversations with them about all sorts of things. It was just really nice.  I was basically in a state of amazement at her maturity.  When did this happen?  

That night I thanked the souvenir penny machines for what I was able to share with Noelle and for allowing me the chance to see the potential for many other outings together exploring a world of chapels and museums, quiet and contemplative experiences I knew intimately before she was born but I never dreamed I would know again so soon.  I saw a side of this young girl I had only seen glimpses of before: quiet, reverent, in a world of wonder and thought, able to feel the energy of sacred spaces and fall quietly and comfortably into them. 

A lucky penny indeed.

A Determined Spirit

Yesterday I rode a bike in what seems like forever.  It is has been sitting against the wall, a new baby carrier perched on the back, but for whatever reason, I have felt a little anxious about riding it.  Pregnancy, altitude, baby too heavy have all moved through my mind when I have thought of going for a ride.

Yesterday Sterling climbed himself into the seat and sat there.  I went over to explain to him Mommy couldn’t take him and Daddy was gone.  He just looked at me calmly and patted the seat, communicating for me to get on.  I again said no, he again patted the seat.  This went on for awhile until finally I pushed past my anxiety out of a desire to experience what was obviously really important to Sterling.  As the saying goes, the risk of remaining tight in the bud outweighed the risk of blooming.

And before I knew it, the wind was in my hair and I was transported back to the carefree days of my childhood. Russian Sage and wildflowers that overgrew the sidewalk brushed my legs, my heart skipped beats as I went over various bumps and cracks.  There was the exhilaration of flying downhill, and the exhaustion of climbing back up.  And all the while my little one was quite as a mouse, taking in all that passed him by.  And I silently thanked him for not giving up.

Down the Rabbit Hole

It has been more than a month and hundreds of pictures since I posted last.  I hope to do a series of just pictures of our month in Colorado soon, but until then I will start with today.

We went to the Albuquerque Aquarium and BioPark today.  The aquarium was amazing, as they always are.  Sea creatures swimming wall to wall, face to face.  Their gliding movements always seem to create peace.

But once it was done, I was a little worried because, as amazing as it was, it took up very little of our afternoon.  So we headed to the Botanic Gardens next door where we had been told was a children’s garden.  What I should have known but didn’t realize was what New Mexicans really mean by children’s garden.

They mean once you pass through the vine covered archway, you will enter  nothing less than a fantastical journey into Alice’s Wonderland, Peter Pan’s Neverland, and every princess and prince, dragon fairy tale you ever heard.

Taos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, one thing they have all had in common is these amazing playscapes filled with magic.  They are organic and intertwined completely with the natural world, making them all the more enchanting.

There are no primary colors staged audaciously against each other here.  Every space is a work of art, made to draw one in to the land and their own imagination. 

(The giant pterodactyl cave with eggs!)

When I see the flowing beauty I think,

this is what children are really. 

(Inside a pumpkin!)

They are not simple or loud or garish(well, maybe sometimes), in need of crazy colors and themes.

  They are, quite wonderfully, beings who have not yet lost their enchantment with our world. 

(Enjoying  dancing butterflies and an apple from the  apple tree behind them)

And it is obvious some of them never grew up and instead came to design these beautiful spaces. 

I am in appreciation for these souls, being one of those who never wanted to grow up and appreciates a journey back into Neverland now and then.

A Beautiful Strength

There are about a handful of people staying here in the two condo resorts that share an open green space in the middle.  We just so happen to be neighbors with an incredibly nice gentleman I’ll call a Shaman.  He calls himself an energy worker, but from my meager understanding of what a shaman is, I’m pretty sure he’s the real deal.

He is a Native American  who normally resides in Sedona.  His uncle (who I suspect was a tribe elder but I don’t know for sure) trained he and each of his siblings in a trade.  Our neighbor was trained in prayer, ceremony and energy work.  His sister was trained in herbs and how to work with the earth.  His brother was trained in survival skills and his other brother was trained in forging.  At one point he asked his uncle why he didn’t train each of them in all things, and his uncle responded that this way, they would all stay connected.  And he was right.  Our neighbor calls his sister and nephew for herb advice, they call him for crystal energy work.  It is fascinating to me to watch someone who uses their hands and materials of the earth to create so much.  From harvesting herbs to tanning hides and leatherworking, the Native American way of life is filled with knowledge of the land and how to create things from it.  It is no wonder “Native American Made” holds special meaning for many people looking for artisan work.  But the land is just the beginning.  There is a rich spiritual tradition there, an understanding of the underlying energy in everything. 

Our very kind neighbor shaman passes all kinds of things over the balcony to us, whether it be a muffin or a handful of sage.  He offered to take us out to harvest mullein and yarrow, two herbs that grow prolifically here.  Stephen and our neighbor drove up the mountain together and a couple hours later he came home with lots of fresh greens we tied with string and hung to be dried.  Mullein will be used for tea, it is wonderful to strengthen the lungs.  Yarrow is used for disinfecting wounds as well as breaking fevers.  It is amazing to me that these plants provide us so much beauty and yet, when we look deeper, we see they have healing spirits and bring much to us when we are in need of physical vitality.  Beautiful but strong.  Able to heal.  I guess in a way I sort of find inspiration in these qualities.

And I felt a bit of pride in my husband, who our neighbor said was a natural harvester, taking just enough and leaving a variety of growth stages and plants to keep the plant population thriving.  Hmmm…lego seller right now, but perhaps a budding herbalist? 

Somehow, I doubt it…

The Towns of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

One of the parts I love most about traveling is seeing how other people live, work, play, and, well just be, in different areas.  Even areas that are only miles apart have their own lifestyles. 

In Angel Fire, the people are generally soft spoken and quiet, they keep to themselves, and they are some of the nicest most genuine people I have ever met.  They live in a quiet and beautiful place, existing very close to nature and the elements.

 

In Red River the town bustles with activity.  There are less full time residents there than Angel Fire,  but the town is always full of tourists.  There are shops and restaurants and activities lining the streets, and the town has a definite boomtown feel.  Again, lots of friendly folks with its mix of those who seem a bit tired of the tourists.

Then you can wind down the mountain to Taos.  No mountain town here with log cabins and pine forests.  This is the southwest desert. Covered in Sage Brush and sandy soil, the town is filled with a mix of Native Americans, Hispanics, and sort of artsy Caucasians.  The town’s energy draws those who crave an alternative lifestyle –artists, herbalists, energy workers.  The whole town is constructed from beautiful adobe structures with gardens flowing over the sand colored walls. 

Each town such a different energy, each own offering its own hospitality to our little family of four.  We are grateful to each of them.