Sense of Place - Part II

Sense of Place – Part II

They say that when you die your life flashes before you. Praise God I have not been in that situation, but standing in the Mexican countryside on a Friday night gazing up at the stars your life does begin to flash before you. Maybe it’s the piece of mind or the ability to relax that has me remembering events in my life even back to when I was a child. Or maybe it’s just taking the time to watch the sky and reflect. I have always felt myself to be fairly self aware but my journey to Mexico has given me the opportunity to really learn about who I am and who I had become over the years.

That night the stars of the Milky Way were so bright and distinct you could have counted each and every one of them, with every single star representing an event in my life. Some memorable, others I would rather not have to think about. But you know it’s all these experiences that add up to make us who we are.

This part of the country is considered the sierras, high plains or alto plano with folks being called altenos. If my geology lessons serve me well the landscape appears to have been formed by glaciers and volcanic activity. We tend to end up a lot of times in the canyon area north of town. On our side you enter the canyon by a steep switch back road while to the south east the valley flattens out into the next valley and on the north side you exit through rolling hills. The landscape is full of flat topped mesas and conical shaped hills. It’s that changing terrain and altitude that offers so much too watch. At one point on the highway you are at such an altitude that you can see the sun reflecting off the buildings of Leon, a good hour drive away.

I think it’s the landscape and the sky that lends itself to reflection and meditation; there is always so much to see that it just mesmerizes you. After an impromptu picnic by the side of the road one afternoon I rediscovered the joy of lying back in the grass and simply watching the clouds float by. I don’t believe I had done that since I was a teenager and thought to myself “how freaking great is this”. A recent Sunday found the family loaded up in the car and off we headed to spend the afternoon by the stream that runs through the canyon area. We had tables, chairs and food but mainly we spent the afternoon just sitting in the stream and letting the warm water flow over us.

It seems the countryside is different here than back in Nebraska and Iowa. Over the last few years on journeys through the rural areas of those two states it felt quiet, lifeless. No sounds of livestock, birds or even insects. Rural towns in the States feel dead with boarded up buildings and the people that do live there closed up indoors. The kids aren’t even out playing in the streets. I say it’s immense here but you are never alone in the countryside, people live here, they work here and seem to be more connected with the outdoors. Tonight I saw the most beautiful thing on our way home; a young man was sitting outside a “convenience store” here in town with his date while his horse was tethered next to them. There are many what we would call “old fashioned values” in this town but I have to say they are good, proper values. Besides values there is a true horse culture here with folks using their horses for both transportation and to work the land. I recently read an article on “Century Farms” in the States. These are working farms that have been operated by the original family for 100 years or more; and they are very few of them left. Here you have farms and property that has been in the same family for multiple centuries.

It was another Friday night and we had been to the canyon area to collect rocks for the garden at the house. Because of how the terrain was formed the selection of rocks is endless from limestone to slate, to volcanic, to white, red, black or rounded river rocks.
They are just there lying by the side of road to be collected. After filling a pickup full of rocks we stopped at our favorite “convenience store” in the canyon (see picture below) for a couple of beers. As we were sitting on the tree stump chairs under the corrugated tin roof a storm started to blow across the canyon. We watched it for some time as it approached, being so dense with rain that it totally obscured the mountains in the background. We should have headed to the car sooner when the hail and the rain started to pelt us and the water started to rush down the road. By the time we made the dash ten feet to the pickup all three of us were drenched.

It’s the sky and the landscape that capture you here. They are always changing and inviting your imagination and life’s reflection. Next week it’s a short posting on the “Ride of My Life”