Loner in the Desert

My period of indecision is over--I a[m] going West.... it came quietly--naturally.... it is what I want to do for my work--and I have been so very well after the summer out there.... the country seems to call in a way that one has to answer it.

Georgia O'Keeffe    New Mexico 1930

View from the train en route to Santa Fe. New Mexico/ June 2013

Letters from the desert. The call came quite some time ago, and this week I was able to answer it.

Buenos dias from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

It is hot. That I like.

When I got to New Mexico that was mine. As soon as I saw it that was my country. I'd never seen anything like it before, but it fitted to me exactly. It's something that's in the air--it's different. The sky is different. The wind is different. I shouldn't say too much about it because other people may be interested and I don't want them to be interested.

Georgia O'Keeffe    New Mexico 1977

*excerpts copied without permission from the walls of the Geogia O'Keeffe museum.

Collected postcards scanned from home.

O'Keeffe says it best. While sitting on an adobe bench at the Georgia O'Keeffe museum in a funny straw hat early this morning, the sound of her very own voice in my ears affirmed that this is the right place for me to take a hike. She called herself the Loner in the Desert, and I think that suits me fine this week too.

And what a lovely holiday it has been thus far. To sleep and to rise, then to walk aimlessly from shadow to shadow in relief of the heat, and to eat and swim at one's leisure is some kind of luxury. It is good to be quiet and reflective in a new landscape.

Tomorrow I will be driving into the desert; just myself, the Kiev and the wind to keep us company.