I have been spending a lot of time driving. I always do as we live rurally. It takes about 7 minutes to drive “into reception” so the car is quiet until I get there. When I turn right and begin passing the irrigated fields, the turned over earth, know I am there. These last two days there has been a man in the field on the right with a shovel and big rubber boots up to his knees. He is moving the cow patties – distributing them, luckily, around. Here is where I can hear the western meadowlark sing. It sits on the telephone wires strung and sagging. Consistently there. Gladly. Swinging back and forth in the wind and there is a lot of wind today. The wind has thwarted my plans of gardening today, so I took a deep nap instead.
I awoke to a quiet house and a naughty puppy. His bed is strewn with shoes, a red cowboy boot, a motorcycle glove and a ballet slipper. He looks phenomenally innocent, his head only cocked to the side when I look at him.
Yesterday I drove to Albuquerque and back. An almost 3 hour trip one way….we had a New Mexico Birth Center Alliance meeting there and it is important to be present and collaborative. I like the meetings, don’t know how I feel about the driving. I know this route so well. Through the canyon with the Rio Grande on my right, the bright green of the new leaves of the cottonwoods near the water. The signs for the Bighorn Sheep are always there in the same placesand I strain to find one on the craggy and jutting rocks. I haven’t yet. The tree where the two bald eagles are supposed to rest – they weren’t there yesterday.
And out – into the dustiness and ugliness that is Espanola. An impoverished and ugly town with a backdrop of mesas and spotted landscape - pinons and sage. Down here, more cholla – but unblooming yesterday.
Through the Indian pueblos, the land, some casinos on the left, some small country stores – geared towards Santa Fe Art tourists heading towards Taos. Young woman with their children buying sodas at the gas station when I fill up. I head on towards Albuquerque.
I listen to music the whole way, and my mind can’t stop thinking. Snacking and drinking water until I desperately have to pull over and water the straggly landscape.
My goal is to reach home at peak sunset time. I made it and I get to go for a walk, the mountains from my driveway lit up – glowing. It feels good to stretch my legs, barefoot in my clogs. Decompressing with Falko. Walking our familiar arroyo, through
the gate and into the open area in the valley beneath our house. Sparse with houses – green with long grass and new sage. The dogs love the trail, they know the way. It’s a long and perfect walk.
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