Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven

 

Tomorrow is a special day.

Not only does Edy return from another visit to Taos with the kids, but it is also our Wedding Anniversary. A few dozen lifetimes wrapped into just half dozen years; awe-inspiring does not even begin to touch what we have.

So, six years ago today my son in-law and I went out for Mexican food and then watched an old war movie while I tried my best to sit still. I was “happy/nervous” as a young man I know used to say and so excited about the coming day. I joked with Edy earlier that we were embarking on something quite new for both of us and it was going to be”The Beginning of a Great Adventure”. Little did either of us know just how great or just how exciting! (“Little did we know” is a term we use often because it also part of a movie we love with Dustin Hoffman who… “ wrote a whole book on: “little did he know”….)

 “Universes colliding” was how we described our coming together. Forces bigger than us propelled us forward toward each other and resistance was futile on all fronts. Resistance remains futile to this day. Fusion IS a very powerful force.

We were married on a beautiful autumn day in Santa Fe in the Chapel of the Sisters of Lorreto. It’s a famous historic place now adjoining a nice hotel. The stairway was carved and built by a traveler who after completing it just “kept on truckin”…..It is a beautiful piece of work. Our minister was cool older gent who had done a million weddings and thankfully stayed awake during the entire ceremony. We hired a wonderful guitar player of regional fame and emense talent who unfortunately passed on to the other side a few months after our service. Kids and very young grandchildren were in attendance and everyone dressed up for the occasion. It was a magical day.

 At the appointed time, it began to snow lightly outside and Edy and her “ladies” made their way into the chapel with soft flakes in their hair. Edy was stunning in her cream dress and gloves, absolutely stunning. From the moment I saw her, the rest of the service gets a bit fuzzy. Vows, “I do’s”, kisses on the spiral stair, photos, signing the extra large bi-lingual marriage certificate and dinner in the “Hopi Room” of the adjoining Hotel.

We left early the following morning to visit a famous spa frequented by Hollywood stars. When we got to “the place” it was ...how do you say?…..”Underwhelming” and we passed on even trying it out. We headed west into “Indian territory” not the most PC word but true for we spent the next many, many days touring the beautiful lands of the Zuni, Acoma, Navajo, Hopi and other Puebloan cultures old and new.  The lands were gorgeous and the people super friendly but the dark energy of the places cast a veil over us for the entire trip.

One afternoon we illegally parked and hiked down and into the side of a multicolored sandstone mountain cave-ette and watched the sun set over the 3^rd mesa of the Hopi. We held hands and talked about how many other new loves had been in this place gazing on such a sacred site as we were doing this night? Dozens, hundreds, thousands  over how many millennia ?......”Only the spider woman knows the answer to that one” we chuckled.  To this day I do not know “why” I was compelled to take my new bride on such a journey or adventure as it might better be described; an adventure that has not let up for even a day since it began. Hold on tight or put your hands up in the air it makes no difference; the ride is what it is and our tickets are definitely “punched”.

It’s no joke that all good things in my life today are because of Edy. Loving her is the reason my heart beats. “Home” is wherever Edy is; regardless of geography. Love follows her wherever we go. H, F,M  and the grandchildren fill me daily with such joy and to witness them come into their own places of maturity and power has been an honor, an absolute honor.

It has occurred to me over the past several months that I have married God’s personal spokesperson. “Little did I know” that when I kissed her on those stairs six years ago I would be ascending a stairway to heaven every day of my life from that day forward.

Happy Anniversary EML!!!  (Edy My Love)

 

 

 

  

Sultans of Swing

Sultans of Swing

I’ve been working on some energy tax rebate stuff and 3D models for a current client since I got home from yoga this afternoon and was able to check it off my to do list.

Not bad, for changing out some lamps the owner gets a free year of electricity for both of his studios in five years, and saves another $4k per year thereafter, not bad at all. 3D models are a fun tool for clients and contractors to “get it” – They’re easy to do with the software I use and a couple decades of doing them makes it go pretty smoothly. Youtube albums also help with the production pace as the mouse and keyboard fly when Janis or Jimi are cranking it up.ZZ Top was good for the tedious erasing that sometimes needs to happen with “hides” and Dire Straights was on for the final layouts. They always remind me of my time in Japan in the 80’s. THAT trip needs to happen again !!  Bach accompanied me during the number crunching for the tax rebate calcs. A little Moonlight sonata works well with excel I have found.  

As I worked and switched between albums I noticed that Arlo Gutherie’s wife passed away this morning. He wrote a touching “epilogue” on facebook. I know no particulars, only that they loved each other and now she’s gone. Sad.

Our “potential projects” here have taken on a Mayan calendar quality as days,weeks, months might as well be baktun or some such Long Count system or perhaps it’s reverted to the Redwood system of time keeping whereby “next week” actually means “photosynthesis willing”………….I’ve given up on trying to plan anything around any of them as whatever is going on has no relationship to “time as I know it”.

Thank goodness for yoga! For one short period of my days I can be certain that at least that will be there.

Truth is I am bored out of my gourd. I could have easily farmed out all the stuff I did today but I felt the bees in my brain and I needed to give them an outlet. I don’t want to be “busy” like I have been in prior times but the cosmic work flow governor needs to be screwed out another ¾ of a turn and soon, please!  

In the meantime my current client will continue to get models of every angle of his place and tax forms for both studios and the house too. The Sultans of Swing are an antsy bunch.

Bokeh

Bokeh

I’ve taken a few weeks off from the blog as I seem to be in a perpetual state of flux, all over again. Sure yoga has continued on every day and various other daily and nightly happenings still occur on schedule but other happenings haven’t and still more have been side tracked by actual “Acts of God”. So, it’s been a series of intense roller coaster rides one after another. Clickity click on up to the highest highs and cheek fluttering , super exhilarating G-forces zoom down to new lowest lows. Banked curves rattle my teeth right and then left and back again until we start all over on the way up; clickity click, clickity click.... My back is pressed hard against the seat and I try to move my fingers quickly to get some circulation back in them before they are needed again. It takes some time to get any feeling back  and while I shake and wiggle them I squint to look out at the scenery around me but it is blocked by struts and infrastructure and I can only see glimpses past the frame work to the scenes beyond. Just when I think I have the “lay of the land” and what may lay ahead the tracks are shifted and ….“wooooooaaaaaaaa”……………nothing is as it is expected to be, and the only certainty of late, is an over abundance of un-certainty!!!

I’ve been trying to focus on different things during these rides which I am sure are of the utmost importance, but BOKEH only allows for small glimpses of anything that is the least bit in focus and it seems the moment I feel like I have a grasp on “it” either with my mind, my eyes, my heart or my soul the focal point shifts and I am then trying to make sense out of THAT,……then THAT,…then THAT …….it’s exhausting.

I’m writing now from a public library in Austin. We’re waiting to pick up LLL from school and rendezvous with   M and KH for a continuation of a really fun weekend. The Taos gang planned and made this long weekend happen and are now on their return drive home.  They brought with them a cold front (which they have mastered) and that too was “a bit more of the unexpected”. Walmart saved the day with warm clothes and found items in the soccer field next door allowed for hours of fun for all. Swimming at the Y was a blast and birthday parties at the kid park helped round it all out.  One evening we were able to fit a grammy a grandpa and two kids in a bed as a further installment to our adventure series about visits to  Austin and it will be added to the bigger volumes of The Hotel Chronicles.  

 

Coming together is always challenging. On one hand it’s super fun to be together and catch up on the happenings since out last visits. Whatever the “hump-day” is, there is a grey cloud of dread that starts to build up on the horizon signifying that there is a finite duration to this particular visit and I begin to feel that we have a clock ticking until we have to say goodbye.  We’re pretty fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time together during the year but as I see these guys growing and learning new skills each trip  I feel like even these short periods between visits are not short enough. BOKEH makes this all the more challenging.

We all have our lives going on in three different parts of the country and for the moment this is the way it is. As we’ve discovered over the past few years, what seemed certain and focused can shift in an instant and something entirely new can appear with spontaneous clarity, as the former fades to the background.

I guess all that is needed is an awareness of the most subtle of shifts.