I was washing the car the way I do before a trip. No way will I head on down the road in a dirty machine. This was taking care of business, then, and yet extremely satisfying.
I’d already been under the hood. The engine was pretty wholesome to start with, except for some dust. But I clean everything I can, all the painted surfaces: the underside of the hood, the perimeter of the engine compartment, the door frames, the edges of the doors. And then I do the interior. I have this amazing German chemical crap that shines up all the black plastic. I wipe the dust off the upholstery with big wet towels. I organize the glovebox. I check my tools in the back. All this work so the car can get plastered with bugs by the middle of the first day! But I was in my element. Completely grounded. As natural as I could be.
This is only news if you’re a lunatic. (Remember, I’m the guy who just discovered air.) That evening the heavens caught fire. After that a storm rolled by and chased the cat in. This morning someone told me—speaking of a different issue that’s bedeviled me—”When things align they align. Until that space relax into your life.”
Set me to pondering, too. I don’t think I’ve ever relaxed into my life! Maybe yesterday a little. So many messages, so little sense.
John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on .png)
You are so lucky to live in big sky country. We live outside of Boston and the trees, while lovely, do often obliterate the sky.
There’s nothing like it. Nothing. And of course you know it was a conscious decision to come here: no job, no house, no friends… (Maybe that’s an unconscious decision, eh?) I was so determined to make something happen, though, and color outside the lines. Still scribbling furiously. Still exploring.
This is the day we left Taos to head home from our New Mexico vacation. I cried. What a wonderful storm we had the night before. The orange sky at sunset, the full moon, the smell of sage in the air when the rain began to fall. We had such a lovely time while there.
Very glad to hear that and not surprised. New Mexico made me cry, too. Something does get in between the cracks. It’s probably all right.
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