I’m home from Mexico and it’s magnificent. Of course, the bubble is bound to pop, but for now, it’s fun to float. I wrote about it in Alacazem this week, quite a feeling.
We arrived here at our rancho last Sunday evening @ 7:30 pm. Left Boca del Salado Wed. Feb. 8th @ noon. Five days on the road, plenty of cactus: Baja California is a long peninsula! Traveling with our three big golden labs in our Dodge truck and ‘93 “Six-Pack” camper, we’re a five-pack in a six-pack! And that’s just what it feels like, plenty tight, with maybe room for one more. No thanks!
Anyway, I’m loving my casa, my bunker and my space. Our house feels like a mansion and I know today I’m lucky and blessed.
Peace and love, joy and serenity. It’s all good! At least right now!
Hey, now!
Every now and then someone pops up with a comment on my blog. Most recently it came from a “Colin Jefferson” – nice name! - and he was commenting on a post I made in mid-March 2009: “The World Has Changed – Radically!”
Bad day at Black Rock, another boulder along the trail…arrows to the heart.
Once upon a time, Jeffrey Wolf Green – one of my astrological gurus – told me I needed to maintain a daily spiritual practice, that it was essential to my happiness, health and well being. You know – past life/current life karma – specific for this particular incarnation on planet Earth. I thought, “easier said than done!” I imagined myself in meditation, doing yoga and fasting. Right!
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve posted on my blog. Wow!
Sometimes I feel like I’m coming out of a fog…returning to the United States and my Colorado home. Things here are so familiar, and yet strange, in a funny kind of way. My husband Richard and I – along with two very hardworking Mexican amigos – did a major renovation and refurbishment of our house last summer. We moved “everything” out of the house – packed personal posessions in boxes and stacked them, along with our furniture, in the back of Richard’s shop - and lived in our “Bunkhouse” for the duration. When we finally finished – shortly before our winter departure to Baja – we decided to leave “everything” out there, packed and stacked, except for the most necessary items – bed, dressers, couches, tables and chairs. Now the interior design is what one might call sparse or minimal, and it’s a trip. Radically different from the old style – Navajo rugs, majestic oil paintings, copper kettles and plates, brass candlesticks, Grandma’s silver tea set and so on – but, now somehow calming and centered. So…things are different and yet the same, evolution on planet Zehm.
I’m south of the border – as they say – in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
I remember then how frail and fragile I felt in some of those hidden, dark places, in spite of the beauty, bravado, courage. I see that girl now and embrace her. I see her even younger, at age 10. And even younger than that, perhaps 5 or 6. And now, almost sixty, I am alone in the evening in a tropical paradise. I can hear the ocean breaking in the distance as a soft breeze rustles the white cotton curtains next to a small, green Christmas tree with lights from home.
Venus has returned as a morning star. I’ve been watching for her since the 4th – and missing her for weeks – and this morning she appeared – her shimmering beauty stunning and her presence a comfort.
For some elusive, mysterious reason, celestial cycles calm and console me. I feel deep resonance with the moving planets and shining stars, traveling comets and meteorites falling to earth. Orion the Hunter guards me in winter and the giant Scorpion greets me in the predawn darkness of summer. I simply love the cosmos – we are the stars - and I’m absolutely thrilled that Venus is back, shining her beauty and magic into my heart and home. She’s my ruling planet, after all.
Years ago, I realized that – God willing – one day I would arrive at this day – and that it would be a special day. Not only because all digits were the same, and that days like this can only occur during the first 12 years of any century – to people born on the first 12 days of any month – but because it was a once in a lifetime occurrence for me. Would it be any different than any other birthday? Would it be any different than any other day?
Well, I had also long ago decided to somehow make it different – whatever that means! – than other birthdays, than other days. Originally, a few months back, I thought I’d like to be in New Mexico – my current relatively easily accessed favorite – perhaps Taos at the Pueblo or soaking in the arsenic hot spring at Ojo Caliente. But, as the day grew closer I realized I probably wasn’t going to make it down there. Too much to do…finish our home renovation project, catch up on readings, set up online accounts for Mexico, prepare for our journey…the list went on and on. So…
Thinking about the logistics and finances, I decided to go somewhere closer. How about a drive to Moab and a hike in Arches? Then lunch at Pasta Joe’s- a good Italian restaurant there – and home for carrot cake from the Belly Deli? Yes! Sounded doable, sounded good. Hopefully, the weather would cooperate.I told my husband about my plan and he was agreeable. We’d have to leave our three dogs at home – no dogs running wild in the Park – and have a day together alone – just he and I and Mother Nature. The result was fabulous.
We ended up walking to the Delicate Arch – arguably the most “famous” and photographed arch in Canyonlands – and dining on pasta. The weather was awesome, the ride relaxing, the colors spectacular and the cake delicious. Another revolution around the Sun…and this year, somehow it was different.
