Behold the Present Moment [Revised]

This is the view we see every time we go to town. (Another iPhone 6s Plus shot, zoomed in this time, which does affect the quality.) I have a soft spot for the property in the foreground because the former owner built real hot rods and drove them every day. After he moved away, the place sat vacant for a long, long time. My wife and I walked down there once after it was on the market and thought about it briefly. I could never let it go—still haven’t, really—because of the insane view and how cheap it was, but it really never had a chance with us. I imagined too much work, and the house itself is small. The people who did take over eventually had more vision than I did and made extensive changes. Jumped right in and started moving dirt, rebuilt the irrigation gate—important stuff that showed how serious they were. The greenhouse, the gardens, the fencing, all of that is new, and the house has had some upgrades, too. On the day we poked around, a horrible old decrepit dead RV sat parked close by and looked damn permanent. It’s gone now, obviously, although it threw me off back then.

My main problem with the the place is visible above: the south wall of the house is right next to the road! There’s hardly any right of way, just boom, the wall. A lot of old adobes in Taos are situated like that. Very European in some ways, Old World for sure. I guess I could have gotten used to the occasional pickup going by the kitchen window, but I was worried for the cat. Be that as it may, I still like to take a look at the place when I turn onto our own road coming home—not just for the view, but because I admire the new owners for taking advantage of a bargain and turning it into something cool with the power of intention.

I’ve learned a lot from watching this. It’s not a matter of, oh, we should have bought it, boo-hoo. Not at all. This is now, the present moment. Everything flows from here.