First-Name Basis

I am currently sitting in Castle Coffee in downtown Albuquerque just about a block from where we are staying drinking my first cup of pour-over coffee since leaving Ojai, and it is delicious. Oh yes, and I am writing, on my laptop, in an urban coffee house, once again fulfilling my dream. I am loving writing with the bustle and voices of people around me. This somehow adds to my focus and creativity as opposed to being a barrier. I’m excited to see how this plays out in Chicago.

In just two short days, Jon, the dogs, and I have fallen in love with Albuquerque. Although an actual city, the pace is measured and everyone we have talked with, and we have talked with a lot of people as I am want to do, has been so friendly and kind.

The neighborhood we are staying in seems to be gentrifying. It’s the kind of neighborhood I typically move into, filled with a mix of original and untouched homes coupled with those that have been reimagined. I already know the names of the people making my coffee, and this is a nudge to me that it’s up to me how small or big I want my world to be. Leaving a small town where I was on a first-name basis with so many people had me believing this was just a small-town thing. Yeah, it’s a me thing. This is how I like to be in this world, on a first-name basis with everyone.

While walking along the Rio Grande yesterday morning with Jon and the pack I got in touch with the beings who inhabit that space, ancient and watery, naiads came to mind, different from the undines who inhabit the Pacific Ocean and yet no less magnificent and magical. As we walked through the cottonwood trees and multiple dirt paths that run parallel to the river, we stepped into a faerie ring.

The change in the air made me look up and notice the trees in a circle around us. For a moment I left this Earth and went into Faerieland, taking a breath there, appreciating being out of time and space, and then I dropped right back into my body landing again on this world. It’s a reminder that faerie portals are everywhere and all that’s needed is the desire to be open to them and a willingness to pay attention.

“Yahoo! We are headed home. I feel like myself again. The spirits are friendly here,” Jon just texted me as he was leaving that same trail while I sit here with my coffee. He headed down there earlier this morning with the dogs leaving me with some much-needed alone time for the first time in a week.

I find myself suddenly filled with a rush of emotions, joy at being here in this moment which is allowing some grief about leaving Ojai and my friends there, human and otherwise, to rise to the surface. This is the thing about opening the heart, everything held within comes pouring out.

Everything.

Wednesday we leave Albuquerque and begin the rest of our journey home. Home, for now, will be the apartment on Oakley Ave in Chicago with the dream of Albuquerque as a potential for some other time.

If you’re not a paid subscriber to my Substack and would like to support my ad-free and independent writing, you can use the donate button here, or consider becoming a paid subscriber if you’re reading regularly and enjoying it. Every little bit helps.