Decades of frugality have come abruptly to an end. I have made the choice to spend on myself some of what remains of that squandered but shrinking nest egg. And I am traveling to Ghost Ranch NM in a week.
A good friend is one of two “leaders” at the week-long gathering to talk (with a dozen other participants from as far away as Ireland) about what “conscious eldering” means to each of us and how we might repurpose or refocus the later chapters that still remain. I learned about this four or five years ago, but I could not be away for even a day. But at 77 and living alone without hourly obligations for care-giving, now I can.
I will have much to say about this on the back side, when I return the week of Sept 21. I expect to bring home images, imaginings and perhaps concrete plans for this new path along which I will learn, serve and grow while aging.
It turns out that Ghost Ranch is kind of an enterprise these days, as you can see from the campus map below. It has a rich history.
Experience The Power & Peace Of The Southwest – Ghost Ranch
I look forward especially to the cool nights and dark skies—the darkest I have ever seen after living in the humid East all my life. However, I will not be in the darkest parts of NM (the dark gray in the map below) but pretty close. I will hope to explore the possibility of time lapse photos with my iPhone.
I will be glad to be on the ground in Albuquerque the day before the event—a three hour shuttle ride away from Ghost Ranch. I loathe air travel but the price will be worth the investment, I feel certain.
WAY FINDING IN DESERT PLACES
I met the participants via a 1.5 hr zoom call last week. I have told the few here who might care that I expect to be perhaps the least interesting person in attendance. My world has been rather small. Not so, for many of the others.
Thursday of the week is spent in silence; fasting as you choose; and alone in the desert. Yep.
I am scouting possible destinations for my day via Google Earth. I am especially thinking about what lessons this presence in an alien landscape can teach me about Deep Time in a way not possible from the invisible buried bones of stone beneath forested and deeply weathered Appalachian landscapes.
What is deep time and what can it teach me about my place in the cosmos?
So I will likely go silent for a week or more. But if I endure and find my way home, I’ll be back and likely have words and images and revelations to share, FWIW.
– Fred First is an author, naturalist, photographer watching Nature under siege since the first Earth Day. Cautiously hopeful. Writing to think it through. Thanks for joining me. Subscribe to My Substack HERE.
