Live and Learn New Mexico!

2020 was the year that challenged us all in many many many ways. If there were one word that comes up a lot when I think of the year, it is loneliness. I was incredibly lonely. There were other factors besides the virus that contributed to my loneliness. I live in a rural area. My family had moved out of my place just before the virus struck, leaving me alone. I had no car to escape to town just to get out and about. The virus dramatically exacerbated the lonely feeling. There were times that I even considered ending it all and moving on to a more peaceful existence.  I know I was not the only one who felt so lonely. On the last day of January this year, my nephew's son Donovan, feeling profoundly lonely and depressed, took his own life. I have been thinking about him every day since.  For my own depression, I've found that having something to work on, especially something that helps others, helps me deal. Donovan's mom, Misty, is also like that. She started a Facebook page...

 It was the last day of January 2021 when Donovan decided he was done with this world and he said farewell to it forever. I did not find out until the next morning when I looked on Facebook and saw his mother Misty's post, saying she had found his lifeless body and she couldn't breathe. Donovan, only 18, is the grandson of my sister Tami, who passed in 2008. He is her son Damien's oldest child. I did not know Donovan very well but followed his story told by his proud, loving mom on social media. I did not realize that he was so very depressed.  It was a Monday morning when I found out. The day was unbelievable energy-wise. Before I even got out of bed, I could tell something was up. A few minutes later, when I learned of his passing, I understood it.  All day, I could feel Donovan everywhere. At one point, I was out pacing in the yard and the kid across the street was riding in his ATV. We both blew off steam that way during these days of Covid. We were often out at the s...

Fall approaches and thoughts of returning to school. Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is planning to implement a hybrid model of remote and in-school learning but parents are worried...teachers are worried... We simply can't do it as we've always done it but we need to get back to life. We have to think outside the box on this one. That has always been my philosophy when it comes to learning. We don't have to be together in one building to learn. We don't have to ship students to one location. Let's flip this thing and send learning out to the students! How it works Rather than ship kids in to the schools with buses, teachers can go out to teach at neighborhood venues where social distancing can be maintained with small groups, places like community centers, skate parks, adult learning centers like Read Write in Moriarty. This plan can work well as part of the overall APS plan to mix online and in-person learning opportunities. I'm just adding another c...

April 14, 2021: With the legalization of recreational marijuana, I thought this a good time to re-post this --  I'm not a political person. Politics are very angry and confrontational, and I'm not into all that. I'd rather meet peacefully with people from other countries and solve problems. Why are we competing? We need to pull together and save the planet already. I do, however, want to say that I love that a positive-thinking woman is in the New Mexico Governor's office. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants to legalize recreational marijuana. She knows it heals, not hurts, for most people, and the money spent preventing its use, and criminalizing it, is ridiculous. It's time. my drug of choice I've smoked weed since I was 19, when I met the lovable pothead trombone player who would become my husband in the UNM marching band my second year of college. Marijuana changed my angst-ridden, over-thinking life. I immediately found weed to be calming and healing. My th...

In today's modern, high-tech world, we are watching our kids becoming more and more stressed out about life in general, and we are realizing that it is affecting their overall health. Our children dread going to school and it breaks our hearts. Learning should be a natural, enjoyable endeavor, not a stressful one. It shouldn't be about standardized tests, getting into college and later getting the really good job that we all know college doesn't guarantee. We don't want them to feel as anxious about school as many of us did. I was anxious in kindergarten! I'm 59 years old now and in the last few years have become aware of the concept of mindfulness -- paying attention to what's happening in the present, without judgement. I'm learning to deal with my anxiety in natural, healthy ways like meditating. I wish I had known about all of this when I was in elementary school, painfully shy kid that I was. If I had learned the mindful techniques I share...

Since moving to the small town two and a half years ago, I've come to appreciate living in Moriarty, New Mexico, in many ways. Sure, there are issues, as with any town no matter the size. But the good outweighs the bad. Here are some of the things I've noticed about Moriarty. Some are trivial, others more consequential. Moriarty has more storage rental places than any other small town I've ever seen. Seriously. There is a storage facility on almost every street seems like. On one street, there are two different ones right next to each other! It's ridiculous...or maybe it's not. Maybe there's a demand. The sky is amazing. I take thousands of photos of the clouds that are shaped and molded by the sometimes mild, sometimes mighty wind. Rt. 66 is the town's main street but business is bad and there are lots of abandoned buildings due to the fact that I-40 exists. You can tell it was once a hustling, bustling road. The town is located about 30 miles from Al...

I was feeling the need to blog but didn't have a topic that inspired me. So I waited and I listened for messages, which is the one thing I've been working on -- listening to the messages. We all get them. Sure enough, after a few days, I was researching "lightworker" and realized that perhaps that is what I am. It inspired me to blog. I'm a lightworker. I'm not unique. There are a lot of lightworkers in this world. The majority are unrecognized as such, I'm sure, but if we gave it a little thought, we would all be able to point out the lightworkers in our communities. They are: the healthcare workers at the hospital who treat everyone with kindness and respect the parents who hug their kids and help them learn to live mindful lives  the people who make your life a little brighter and more positive somehow just through your interaction with them the people who help you heal in some way, quite often spiritually. I just read an excellent article lis...