Wind, Love and Shadow

I departed Magdalena, headed for Elephant Butte. I was rendevous
intent, meeting my sister-friend Susan who was taking a break from her job w/NM State, jumping into her camper van and revving south for a good time. One of those laugh-so-hard-ya-pee-your-pants times. Swill more wine than you should. But also a time of breathtaking beauty, sweet walks and talks.

I was coming off the Equinox. The time of resurrection. The word HATCH kept coming to mind. I drew the rune of Othila, Radical Severance. Something big was in the air as I endeavored to ride the energy. Air, by the way, that blew 60 mph one day at the Butte, rocking our trailers and giving rise to uncertainty. Blowing the old world into Kansas. Susan and I pressed against La Perla-the-windbreak in our chairs as we watched a woman in hopeless effort to put up a tent. "We gotta go help her," said I. Couldn't have driven a stake if yer life depended on it; the tent would have torn to smithereens. Turned out she had a low profile tent stowed  in her car but she wanted her new one that she could stand in. This wasn't the day, as poles and tent sides lifted in every direction. We helped her take down, she put up the small tent and I didn't see her for 24 hrs, when she  came by with a small pack of food to share. We sat and got to know one another as she talked of her lawyer days in Chicago and her desire to retreat. At one point she asked if I liked football. More specifically, the Denver Broncos. YEP! Turned out she was the sister of one of their most renown coaches. I was flabbergasted. The energy was swirling with anything-goes possibility. Made friends with an impressive woman camp host as well, who was continuing on with her work on the Butte in her dinky trailer despite her husband's death a few months past. I'm still in touch with both... sweet blessings.

Next up was Riverbend Hot Springs in Truth or Consequences. Paid for a private, ah-naturale soaking space on the Rio Grande... the best $15 I could imagine. Stretched into the sun; let the world melt away through steam, birdsong and the 107-degree pool. Welcome calm after that wind-swept butte.


I continued down the road, expecting to find a place to boondock but ended up driving all the way to the Safford Hot Wells in Arizona. It's been eight years since I'd been there and it was as low-key beautiful as ever. There are two hot well pools midst beautiful dunes and rock. Gotta go during the week if you don't want the auditory interference of ATVs. I pulled up next to a Scamp. Danged if a sweet cowboy gentleman, hat, vest, boots and all, didn't pop out of that little trailer. "Hello, Maam," he said with a smile and a drawl.

It was a few hours from full moon rise. I placed my quartz crystal in the spring water to cleanse it over night as I wondered how Hobo would do with the coyotes, bobcat and javelina. There was no keeping him inside at night, any more than I could keep the energetic tides from encircling my soul.

I decided to pull out on the third day. It was closing in on Easter and families

love the curly cue mustache!

with ATV's were showing up. I opened the door for Hobo, collected my crystal from the stream and settled for one last soak. Lon the cowboy was as sweet as ever: here's my phone number, he said, give a call if you have any trouble on the road. No doubt he meant every word.

I packed up La Perla and gave that crystal a few pings with the tuner. It almost vibrated me off the bed as I set my mind on Whitewater Draw, a wildlife refuge and one of my favorite places in the world.

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Finalist for the 2013 Colorado Book Award!

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