2021-06-30
Spoiled by
The Land
That You Serve

SPOILED BY THE LAND THAT YOU SERVE

For my bedtime read, tonight I was reading a little coffee table book all-about cacti that I picked up at the thrift store for a dollar and it stated something that succinctly summarizes how I feel about living in Cerrillos, New Mexico:

“Cacti, such as the classic Saguaro define our romantic notions of the American West”

Whether it’s cacti or the 7:15 howl of a pack of coyotes, the majestic horizon at sundown or the magical rainbows we get after the rain we weren’t supposed to get at all this year - it’s all incredibly romantic.

It is quite difficult not to fall in love with this landscape and environment. As I was discussing with my father-in-law this evening, who was feeling a bit daunted by the fact that now he’s moving here too…”Yes, certainly, absolutely, the litany of repairs and upgrades and never ending maintenance means there will always be a lot of hard work to be done, but the context in which it must be done makes it all worthwhile.”

This late afternoon I went out to finish security reinforcements for Coop Knox, which required a lot of digging, sweating, kneeling in fresh chicken shit and a lot of carting of heavy barrows of soil and rocks, but despite the effort it felt good, especially as I breathed in the incredibly fresh air and beheld the majestic mountainscape that lie before me. Wow.

And then, as Chelsea and I came back from 48B Rainbows End, what did we see looking back? An awesome rainbow of course, for which the photos I’m sharing here do not do it justice.

Point is, we’re undeniably lucky, which motivates us even more to work harder to a make significant changes and have a positive impact upon the land. That’s why we spent a few hours today making a berm and radiant alluvial flows of deadwood branches down the slopes.

Did we toil? Yes, but it’s hard to feel the toll of your effort when your spoiled by the land that you serve.