monday morning in new mexico

the yearly pilgrimage to new mexico is upon me. for those of you who don't know, every fall i come here to meet with friends from all over the country to share stories, dream together, and eat together, and be wounded by the beauty of the desert and the mountains.

last night i stood outside the door of the rv breathing the night in and looking at the milky way. it is good to be here. this morning i have a fresh brewed cup of mocha sanani and am waiting for the rest of the mob to show up.

i got to see my daughter yesterday. she's going to what may be the coolest school on the planet, st. john's university, down in santa fe. it did my father's heart good to hear that she was too busy for us and could only squeeze us in between various other stuff she is doing. i know i worry too much, and i was definitely over-worried about her finding her way. i remembered how lost i was in school and how close i came to letting that lost-ness really wreck my life. fortunately, and i knew this, but it is good to be reminded, my daughter is smarter than me and she seems to be settling in nicely.

we are here a little bit earlier than normal, so the aspens are all still green. it could be that the only reason i come here is to experience the constant wonder of seeing the glowing golden aspens set against the dusky green of the pines. i suppose this year will be the test case. the advantage of being here earlier is that we are less likely to get snowed on, which has happened before. the weather-bot says we will be experiencing an entire week of perfect fall days. i guess i can live with that.

today the first wave of arrivals will trickle in here, and we will start a mad whirl of shopping and planning, getting ready for the 100+ people who will be coming tomorrow to experience this odd but marvelous little gathering. this thing is a truly brave little experiment. how do you take a friendship which has been sustaining and beautiful for a few people, and open it up to as many people as would like to come taste and see that the lord is good.

for those of you missing this wonder, there are a couple of travelling Chautauquas, artifacts of this gathering, wandering around the united states that you might want to catch. one is the cobalt seasons fall tour, and the other is a wild dream which looks like it is going to come true. this summer, three of the friends who gather here who have all written books mostly inspired by the extended conversation, and me, will be touring the country in my rv. stopping in towns long enough to find good coffee and sit in the basement of some church and talk about finding and following the dreams of god. ostensibly this will be to promote the books, but in reality it's just another attempt to find more friends. we suspect you are out there and we just haven't found you yet. i'm sure that as summer comes closer, more details will leak here onto this blog.

the sun is up enough to start warming things up, i'm going to go sit outside with my coffee, read some fat brained philosopher and wait for my phone to ring, signifying the arrival of the crew.

Comments

[Glenn R. Wichman]

Welcome back to the Mountain Time Zone! I hope your RV tour will include Tucson on the itinerary!

[NIna]

So great to hear that Kelsey is finding her way. Cool stuff about your traveling discussion next summer, too. And doesn't the beauty of nature just slay you sometimes? I feel that way about our mountains here in Tucson. The way the sun and the clouds cast ever-changing shadows and ever-changing colors on them. We worship an awesome God!!!

[sis]

Of course you will come to Boulder, since we have a 21st century Chataqua with a great restaurant, beautiful hiking trails, fun playground...