Days 162 - 166: Thanksgiving in New Mexico

My apologies for the tardiness. I was traveling!

For Wednesday, Nov 23 - Day 162
Today I'm grateful for a job that's very flexible, and for safe travel to Flagstaff. I'm also grateful for solo road trips after dark, where you can have as many sing-alongs as you like, with no one to judge your crazy facial expressions, music selection, or volume.

For Thursday, Thanksgiving, Nov 24 - Day 163
I'm grateful for safe travel from Flagstaff, AZ, to White Rock, NM. The sunrise in Flagstaff was gorgeous, cresting the snow-topped peaks in a rosy pink. I love the road into New Mexico: you go through these canyons, come out in front of the Bandera volcano, then through some winding canyons before coming across a plain and then all of a sudden, the Sandias appear out of nowhere, heart-stopping and huge in front of you. Take a left at the Sandias, drive til you hit the Sangres, then make a left to cross the valley and go up the 502 through the canyon, across the Rio Grande, up to the Jemez, to the house my grandmother built. I will never tire on this road, nor will the smell of juniper & pinon ever become old to me.

I am also grateful to have received emails from professors that encourage. And I'm grateful to be single for the holidays. It's crazy, but there's something about it that clarifies. I am beginning to see what happiness looks like for me. "Hope is the thing with feathers," said Emily Dickinson. Yes.

For Friday, Nov 25 - Day 164

Today I went to Bandelier. I have made so many pilgrimages here, and it never gets old. I climbed the Frijolito Ruins trail to look down into the canyon below. Trite, but true: you can see so much more, you understand the context, when you can get above it, look down on it, see the bigger picture.

The last time I was here, in September, Bandelier was closed due to the terrible Las Conchas fire and flood damage. I could see little sign of the fires, but did see the sweeping clods of earth relocated by the flood. But the trails were mostly open, and visitors were here again. The ruins are safe, undisturbed.

It's a reminder, no matter how devastating the fire, life begins anew.

For Saturday, Nov 26 - Day 165
My grandmother has done extensive work building out our family tree. She showed me all the way back to the 1500s, and I couldn't help but wonder at seeing all the names: what were the lives of these people like? She can trace us back to two passengers on the Mayflower, John Locke, Pretty Boy Floyd, Emily Dickinson & ee cummings (how perfect, two of my favorite poets!), a convicted witch executed in the Salem Witch Trials, and First Lady Mary Harrison. Our lives are all so little, and so intermingled. Best to tread with kindness.

For Sunday, Nov 27 - Day 166
907 miles, 13.5 hours. So grateful for good roads, clear skies, and sleeping in my own bed!