I read the book, Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, while living in Seattle, long before even thinking about coming to the southwest, years before making New Mexico my home. Now I understand it is a part of the curriculum of the New Mexico state school system. It is another book I recommend if you […]
What a Savage and Beautiful Country!
Like so many of these quotes, this one has been traveling through life with me for so long I no longer remember its author or its source. But it’s just too meaningful not to share. If you know its heritage, please let me know. “Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and […]
Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver was a poet and writer living in Port Townsend, Washington while I was still in Seattle. He died in 1988. I discovered him through a friend who owned a small poetry press in the same town. Scott published works by Tess Gallagher, the “good woman” Carver refers to in this poem. I love […]
The New Mexico Sky
I have quoted several times in this blog from William deBuys’ wonderful book, The Walk, so I thought we should feature something from him on a Wisdom Wednesday. Much from this author has moved me, so you’ll be hearing more about his words and their effect on me, I’m sure. For this first piece, I’ve […]
"I beg you…" – Rainer Maria Rilke
This advice has been profound in my life. I’ve been growing into it over the last fifteen years as Rilke suggests. I am forever grateful. “I beg you… to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a […]
Good Morning, Grandfather
As I am getting to know my Pueblo Indian friends, I am becoming aware of a shift in me. I believe that when we’re ready for lessons, our teachers appear. These people are my teachers for a new body of personal work I wasn’t even aware was on the horizon. Knowing them seems to be […]
As We Think, So We Become — Buddha
I have carried this quote around with me for decades. It’s most often been on my refrigerator. There was a time when it was confusing to me, as well as challenging. Now I totally “get it” but it’s still, of course, challenging: The thought manifest as the word; The word manifest as the deed; The […]