Sunday morning, I walked down from the mesa toward the dining hall for breakfast. A woman intersected my path and we ended up eating breakfast together. Her name was Jeanne O'Dean, and she proceeded to talk about her spiritual journey. She was fascinated that a NASA engineer had turned into a life coach, and told me about some programs she was proposing for young scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I told her that I coached young leaders at NASA and had planned a men's workshop in the Southwest, and we started resonating.
Next she started talking about plans for organic farming at Ghost Ranch, as well as her desire to purchase a nearby farm to set up a research and retreat center. Loyal readers of this blog may remember that Marie and I met a couple, Laz and Nancy, last year with similar plans. When I told Jeanne, she asked if I'd like to go see the farm. Now, my plans for the day were to hike another of the trails on the Ranch, but I've found that when these kinds of offers come up, it's often worth seeing where they'll lead. Marie and I have had so many unplanned experiences and met so many new friends this way that I said, "Why not?"
So, off Jean and I headed for Ohkay Owingeh, near Espanola, to see this farm. Turns out it was an organic seed producer called Seeds of Change for many years before Mars Foods bought them out last July. Evidently Mars was only interested in taking their seeds, because they laid off everyone at the farm and shut it down. Now it was back on the market. We walked the perimeter of the property and the nearby Rio Grande and I took photos to send to Laz and Nancy.
On our way back to Ghost Ranch, Jeanne offered to show me Plaza Blanca, which is Georgia O'Keefe's famous "White Place" in some of her paintings. What a treat this was! Like the Bisti Wilderness last year, the landscape was otherwordly, though more vertical than Bisti and a ghostly gray/white. This is one of those places out here that has you asking, "What the heck happened here?"
It turns out that Jeanne is volunteering at Ghost Ranch, and her current job is to drive the tour bus that takes you past Georgia O'Keeffe's house. So upon our return to the Ranch, off we went down the tour bus route. This was a real treat for me, as it let me see another side of the Ranch, the one that inspired Georgia O'Keeffe so much. For those of you familiar with her paintings, here is the actual "Gerald's Tree".
Here's Georgia's house,
and the view out her bedroom window.
As I told Jeanne, "Heck, even I would have been a painter with that view!" Next, I got a tour of Casa del Sol, an individual and group retreat center available for workshops, etc. Get a load of this view from the courtyard,
and this one from a bedroom.
If I had a workshop there I might never leave! Our final destination for the day was Christ in the Desert Monastery, run by the Benedictines. To get there, you have to drive 13 miles down a gravel road, most of the way hugging the Chama River. Along the way we saw whitewater rafters and kayakers.
Eventually we reached the monastery, which blended in beautifully with its stunning surroundings. If you look carefully, you can see three white crosses high atop the cliffs in the second photo.
WHEW!!! What a day, and all because I said "Yes" to possibility. We made it back in time for dinner, then I went back to Tumbleweed to read. No sunset tonight - it was cloudy - but no Michael Jackson, either. Peace and quiet, at last!
Monday was checkout day, and I planned to get in that hike. This time I'm really going down Box Canyon! But that'll have to wait until the next post ...
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