Author: Laura Lee Carter
Winter Construction Challenges
The latest polar surge has not helped to keep our construction project on track. Nothing happened during the holidays, but this past week we received a new roof on our gigantic garage, what Mike calls:
So nice to go up there yesterday to finally find a roof on the garage!
Slow and steady builds the house, especially in mid-winter…
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Aging and Letting Go of STUFF!
It seems natural to begin paring down possessions as we get past age 50 or 60. What brings about this growing need for letting things go? In our case moving helped a whole lot! I learned last spring exactly how exhausting moving can be, both physically and emotionally.
We chose to build a smaller passive solar home for a number of reasons. Cost was a major concern, and parallel to that was a desire to conserve natural resources.
For each of us the question becomes how much personal space is enough? What is just right without over doing it? We have no growing family, and only a small need for guest space.
I learned from moving this past year, that getting rid of your stuff can be a positive but gradual process. You get rid of a small amount and then realize that wasn’t so painful, so you take a bit more to the Goodwill. Before you know it you’ve sent a quarter of your stuff away and don’t even miss it. I pictured walking into the local Goodwill and seeing my stuff everywhere!
Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful!
There comes a time when “the stuff” no longer brings joy, but instead weighs you down. Your old stuff can equal old memories that no longer improve your present. It feels like your past is crowding in on you.
You soon learn that when you become truly selective in what you keep and what you gift back to the world, you are only left with the BEST STUFF … Or maybe, like me, you simply get tired of packing boxes and quit!
Sacred Journeys, Sacred Mountains…
After watching an episode of Sacred Journeys on PBS, one which included a bit about the sacredness of mountains in Asian thought, I realized how fundamentally important it feels to now own land with views of our own sacred mountains.
The Spanish Peaks, pictured above, have a centuries-old history of sacredness. Dating back far before the Europeans arrived, this area was a crossroads of the American West. Taos Pueblo, located in northern New Mexico today, has been a major Native American trading center for over 1,000 years. One trail headed north out of Taos into the San Luis Valley, crossing east over Sangre de Cristo Pass, through the gap between Rough Mountain and Sheep Mountain.
Various Native American tribes like the Ute, the Navajo, the Jicarilla Apache and the Comanche passed through this valley regularly. To them the Spanish Peaks stood out because they seemed to emerge out of nowhere up to 13,000 feet running east and west, not north to south like the rest of the Rocky Mountains.
The natives peoples considered this a sacred place of ceremony. As far as they were concerned, this is where mankind first emerged from the womb of the earth. In other words, this was their own Garden of Eden.
The Ute Indians named these two peaks Huajatolla (pronounced Wa-ha-toy-a), meaning the “two breasts” which translates as “Breasts of the Earth”.
I loved learning this ancient history, which I first heard about when Robert Mirabal came here to perform this past July.
We moved here to create a dynamic relationship with these mountains, this landscape and the lovely silence. Mike and I have both traveled to many parts of the world. We now find the inward journey more dynamic and essential than outward ones.
For us this is a sacred place, one where we can celebrate and appreciate the beauty of nature every single day, while continuing a long tradition of sustainable living.
Learn more about what it’s like to move from city life to the country for a slower, quieter, more sustainable life in my new memoir. Just send me an e-mail for a great price!
MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com
Adventures of the NEW??? Old Farts 