BIG (unrelated to garden) NEWS!
I am now, as of last Monday, officially a Big Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters! 🙂
Usually when being “matched” with a Little through Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), a Big & Little match is set up by the staff at BBBS using the information obtained in your interviews based on interests and similarities expressed by both parties. However, my Little and I are unique in that we have known each other for almost 8 years through the after school program I manage. She started with us at age 5 and, now that she’s 13 and in Middle School, has “aged” out of our program.
Now, P (as she’ll be called in this space) and I met while she was in foster care and going through the process of being adopted. I attended her adoption ceremony and have been right there with her through lots of transitions and challenges. We have experienced a lot together over the past several years so it was obvious that we would need to continue to spend time together once she aged out of our program.
The beginning commitment through BBBS is one year of seeing each other a couple of times a month for a few hours each time. The goal is to have fun, get to know each other on another level and share our common interests. As we share time together, I just might share some of our experiences in this space…especially since P has expressed that she would like to teach me how to care for horses and maybe even how to ride them…I think you might get a good laugh out of that 😉
Anyhow…yesterday, for our first official outing, P chose to go to Las Golondrinas. It is her favorite place in Santa Fe and since I haven’t been there since I was a kid, I was happy to fulfill her request.
Las Golondrinas is a living, historic museum in a rural farming valley on the south side of town. It’s original incarnation was an a stopping place on the Camino Rael, the path from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Many existing historic buildings have been restored and authentic structures have been erected on existing foundations. The whole encampment sits on 200 acres and is like a little slice of heaven. There are multiple structures strew over the property, many garden plots (full of corn, chile, squash…), goats and sheep. There are abandoned pens that one can imagine housing chickens or pigs. There is a horse drawn wagon on which you can tour the property (we just walked) and a couple of acequias that must be crossed (luckily, the caretakers have built and maintained a few bridges as well). Fresh bread from the orno is served with honey-butter and or freshly harvested and roasted green chile and the employees are dressed like they are stuck in the 1700s.
Las Golondrinas feels like a comfortable, secure, beautiful community. I am sure it wasn’t always peaceful, and I spent a bit of time thinking about how hard it must have been to actually live a life of constant work just to keep food on the table and the horses taken care of. However, the couple of hours we spent there reminded me how deeply I long to get out of the city and be surrounded by nature and animals and hard (real, tangible) work. I love all of our modern conveniences, but I could happily trade a few of them for some good rural living.
Luckily, P feels the same way, so we had a few good chats about horses vs. cars and texting vs. having an actual conversation (face to face…imagine that) while we walked around the property.
It was a good day, and a good reminder about what’s really important in the grand scheme of things. I am very excited about our future time together 🙂
Your comment about getting out of the city really resonates wth me. When I’m sitting on the 24th floor of the Sears Tower often all I can think about is getting home to the garden. Tangible work indeed….
Oh man…what a view! Yes, that view alone (while amazing) would offer a ton of perspective, ha?