Prompt: The majesty of the Organ Mountains
The biggest deal of 2011 has been without a doubt the move from North Carolina to New Mexico. We’re talking HUGE. I circled in a holding pattern for a good two years longer than I expected as my wife made the transition from graduate student to employed academic. We could have landed anywhere. We were very close to moving to Portland (Oregon), but we also could have wound up in Kalamazoo (Michigan), Bar Harbor (Maine), Mexico City, or any number of other places. At first I pretended to be more excited about Las Cruces that I really was. I mean, it’s so deserty here. Daddy likes his green. And there’s no discernible music scene, and it’s ever so far from family, etc. But the place grew on me right away, and today Las Cruces and I fully consummated our relationship when at long last I set foot upon the mighty Organ Mountains, which I have been admiring from a distance for the past four months.
Dripping Springs is right up the road from our house, but for whatever reason my wife and I didn’t make the trip until this morning. It was unusually cloudy, and much to our delight it even began snowing as we ascended the main trail. The photos below don’t even begin to capture the majesty of this place, what with all the clouds and my cheap-ass camera. And it’s hard for me to capture in words the quality of happiness I felt as I breathed in the cool mountain air and gazed at the various peaks and stared at the three deer we came across and, most of all, as I considered how grateful I am to have landed in one piece, in this particular place, with this particular person by my side.
The wings of possibility are stretched wide over me once again, and this time I am ready. I am willing. To surrender to the breath of the wind.
These pictures are incredible!
I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying yourself so much.