The storms built up slowly over the afternoon, the way they do, and rolled by one by one until just after sunset. That doesn’t mean we ever had a problem. In this part of the world, the land’s so big, the weather almost never finds you. But you see the storms, or hear them, or enough of the system passes overhead so that you get these waves of rain and wind.
Today was like another time and place: cloudy, mostly dark and damp, with thunder rumbling many seconds after distant lightning flashes. We read or took our naps under quilts in the cool late afternoon while rain drummed on the skylight. It was like being a little kid at grandma’s house in bad weather when there wasn’t anything to do and everybody rested. That never happens anymore, I guess, with the internet in your pocket. There was a time, though, when quiet was your friend and you were safe.
John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on .png)
When I was a little kid I spent about 75% of my time in summer in our big hay barn, down by our creeks or walking around our big pastures. I remember getting caught a half mile from the house in summer rain showers and how cool it was. Now I hunker down in the house whenever there’s a threat of rain. I guess I was smarter when I was six or seven years old.
Today’s NY Times (reviewing a book by Geoff Dyer) quoted D.H. Lawrence on New Mexico.”‘When you get there, you feel something final,’ Lawrence wrote. ‘there is an arrival.'” Didn’t know if you know this quote or not, but it sounded like something you might have said. In looking for the source, I found an article on Lawrence and othes in Taos. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/travel/22culture.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&.
Cheers!
Definitely understand “there is an arrival,” “something final,” etc. Lawrence didn’t stay long, though. The chthonic spirits got to him, and he went back home to England. 🙂
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