A Greater Love

Taos Mountain with magpies

Taos Mountain with magpies on their way to roost in Miranda Canyon

There’s been so much sunshine this year. Hardly any snow. Day after day of clear blue sky and big bright sun. You get addicted and expect it and it usually shows up. Like how when you stop trying to “fix” things so hard, something else gets better, and then you just go with that.

The other day I was standing at the top of the driveway, gazing out over the dead cars, trailers, and broken-down corrals to the horizon ninety miles away—the way one does here, while we scuff our boots against the dirt and squint—and damned if I didn’t feel pretty good. What was missing was the little demon with a baseball bat that beats me in the nuts because what are you doing like this at your age and maybe you should just eat dirt and die. I mean, he simply wasn’t there. The sun was on my face, the wind was in my hair, and I had something I wanted to do. How did it ever get more difficult than that?

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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 About page. For a complete list of all John’s writing, photography, NFTs, and social media links, please visit JHFARR.ART  

  • Carolfrimbatonrouge March 1, 2014, 7:29 PM

    That pic is so surreal !!
    Reminds me of “The Birds”
    Beautiful beyond words
    So many different feelings.

    • JHF March 1, 2014, 8:04 PM

      I know! It’s just too bizarre. I don’t know what to think.

  • Colin Glover March 1, 2014, 7:47 PM

    John, I know you haven’t heard from me but you have heard of me. At the same time I haven’t met you but seen and felt much of you, over the years. Thats a wonderful evocative photo from somebody who, I know, feels his country so intensely.

    I have admired how you have stayed true to a theme for so long doggedly capturing the light and life of a seemingly otherwise barren land. I’d also like to thank you for the wonderful interaction that you and Carmie have moulded over the years. Due in no small way to these photos and prose. Thanks and cheers

    • JHF March 1, 2014, 8:15 PM

      Hey Colin, thank you for your eloquence and generous words. [He’s writing from Australia, folks.] Interesting that this photo moved you to write, eh? I wish I could smell the air in Queensland now. I wonder what that would be like?

      All my best to you and Carmel. Very good to hear from you!

  • Bob March 1, 2014, 8:51 PM

    Let’s see, if it were me would I rather be blogging from Taos or be a hedge fund manager in NYC, rolling in dough and always wondering who was going to get to me first, my clients or the Feds? Demons and nuts be damned, I don’t need the money.

  • Janna March 2, 2014, 12:15 AM

    Absolutely the best photo of that crazy thing called Taos I’ve ever seen!

    • JHF March 2, 2014, 8:31 AM

      You be sure to comment all you want now, you hear? 🙂

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