After the Honeymoon

When I moved to Taos New Mexico six months ago I was in the honeymoon phase. I loved the desert, the square adobe houses, the mountains that encircled the city like guardians.  Then the winter came. It snowed and snowed.  My car got crushed in a traffic accident.  I got COVID.  I started eating popcorn for dinner as a regular thing. 

No place or person is perfect.  One of the things that keeps us from seeing the special things about a person or place is getting stuck in an idealized vision of how things should be.  
When you are stuck in this mode you see only what is missing. Taos New Mexico doesn't have recycling. Really, no one recycles anything here!  There are torrential winds that blow up the desert dust and you end up inhaling it just walking around.  It's impossible to make a doctor's appointment, because there aren't enough doctors.  The list goes on and on. The real town of Taos NM vs the imagined perfect town of Norina Beck's mind.  Guess who loses every time?
 
One day I went for a hike by the river.  It was bitterly cold and the wind was blowing snow into my face.  I trudged through it, wishing it was warmer, greener, gentler.  I walked and walked.  Then I saw something.  It was a pair of tiny tracks in the snow.  An hour or two before, two mice had hopped along together, parting ways a foot in front of me.  That was something I'd never seen before.  I started looking around me and I started seeing more. Icicle formations at the river's edge.  The way the blowing snow reflected the sun like fairy dust.  The more I looked, the more I saw. 
 
What if relationships were treasure hunts?  What if, instead of evaluating and judging, I used my curiosity to unveil the surprising and beautiful things?  For me, this approach opened a door for me to experience my relationship with Taos in a new way.  Taos might not be my home forever, but it has something unique to offer. As long as I'm here, I want to be open to seeing and appreciating what that might be. 

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