some rain and reading

We had two days of rain & snow and humidity. It was a wonderful thing. Mother Nature has calmed our dust storms and smoky air. A feeling of Spring is now in the air. Hopefully more rain is to come. 

Taos is a place full of diverse cultures & lifestyles. And it is a small town, which has not grown much. The population having expanded only a couple-thousand people in 100 years. It is a town that was once a Pueblo, then became Spanish conquered land, then grew into a community of Hispanic farmers & ranchers, and then the Anglos showed up. First the Anglo "artists" who discovered the light, and were intrigued by a place that seemed outside of conventional America. D.H. Lawrence wrote, "...it was New Mexico that liberated me from the present era of civilization, the great era of material and mechanical development." 

Following them were the Hippies, Outdoor-enthusiasts, Minimalists..., other people looking to escape conventional America, and found here that a person can still live mostly "off the land" and even "off the grid".

I haven't yet figured out how/where/who I am, here in New Mexico. And I'm the sort that needs to feel I know where I am.

"What is New Mexico then? How to sum it up? It is a vast, harsh, poverty-stricken, varied, and beautiful land, a breeder of artists and warriors...It is itself, an entity, at times infuriating, and at times, utterly delightful." --Writer, Oliver LaFarge

It is a challenging place, a place that feels not really on the map of the America I grew up in; it is a beautiful place, sometimes heartbreakingly so; a place with mountains that are ever-changing shapes and colors; it is full of diversity but lacks in community; it is a place that encourages creating art; it is a place where Anglos live, but will never truly be from; a place where speaking Spanish is normal, and English secondary; a place where everything comes with green chile sauce; a place full of space and yet full of walls; and it is a place that relies upon the land and people before relying upon technology or any government.

I started a project of reading what other people have said, written, believed about moving & living here. In a way to help me piece together my own understanding.

"It is the land that holds us here. It is the unrelenting land, this great, fierce, challenging, canyon-gutted, mesa-muscled land, which holds us & which gives us space enough to write a life on---and leaves it to us whether we have courage enough & faith to fill the page." --Writer & Professor, John DeWitt McKee