We left Chimayo around 8 a.m. and got home around 11 p.m., it was a good day and a long time. Every day in New Mexico, I saw things I had never seen before and felt the power of landscape and creativity as I had never felt it before.
It is a wonderful gift at any age to see new things, to be challenged and touched so deeply. It was rich and warm to come home to Bedlam Farm, the dogs were very happy to see us, and the donkeys came running up to the pasture gate to seem me and Maria, an uncharacteristic show of emotion for them.
Gus danced a wild dance of joy, and Red just put his head on my knee, we do belong together. Fate rushed to the fence to try to get to the sheep, as usual, and paused to wag her tail a bit.
We had a rich and very meaningful and fun vacation, we will be talking about it for a long time. We want to go back there, so much to see and experience. I’m still unpacking a bit, sorting through the mail, calming the dogs down.
Gus and Fate will be in the crate at night for a few days or weeks to get back into the routine. Shelby and Kirby did a wonderful job of caring for the farm, we are lucky to know them. Shelby things Red needs some supplements for his sometimes stiff joints, but I’m not so sure.
Red has gotten laser, acupuncture and massage treatments for his joints, and has done well. He’s an older border collie, and he will have arthritis, and joint supplements have never seemed to make much of a difference for my dogs.
I’ll have to think about it and watch his movements.
It is good to leave home, it is good to be home, at my desk, my computer, my town, my dogs, my donkeys, my bed. I was quite shocked to feel so good down there, I felt especially healthy and alive. It might be the air, it might be that we just needed a vacation. All will make itself clear.
I want to get back to the work of the Army of Good, the Mansion, the refugees in Albany. I want to get back to doing good rather than arguing about what good is. I want to settle back into my life.
Sometimes, by going away, you see your own life more clearly. For most of my life, vacations meant getting a way and hating coming home, I always wanted to be somewhere other than where i was, I moved countless times.
One day I looked in the mirror as I thought about moving, and had a revelation. The problem with moving to be happy is that you always bring yourself. So I stopped moving, and found my place, and am standing my ground. Happiness for me is an internal, not an external thing.
If I am not happy with me, I can’t be happy anywhere else. There are no magic paths to happiness. I am happy to be home with everything that I love, and back to my books and photos and blog. I had the most wonderful time. There is no place like home.
Life is good.