Rainy Day in Taos

Weather matters, doesn't it? It does to me. It's been absolutely, splendidly beautiful here in Taos since we arrived almost a month ago. Couldn't ask for better. Today is cloudy though, and it rained most of the night, but that's a good thing. It's a blessing, in the purest form. Water in the desert. Back in our Seattle days, and even last winter in Ashland, a rainy day was not a novelty, and certainly not a comfort. Not to me. But here, when we get these days, they're actually kind of nice.

As leaves turn yellow around town, hollyhocks and roses continue to bloom, and the small lawn we lost to the renter's chickens is sprouting new green shoots, thanks to a sprinkle of seeds and Rick's careful watering. But we all know that it could turn to winter any day now. Nights have gotten colder, and there's snow on the mountains this morning. I'm still wearing my flip flops, still in denial, but my boots and warm socks are close at hand.

A rainy day in Taos, or most anywhere really, is perfect for sitting by the fire with a cup of tea and a good book. I've been saving my lovely new, very heavy copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare for a day just like this. It was inexpensive, and purchased on a whim in Seattle, but I really do intend to read it. All of it. Eventually. So far I've only held it and looked at it and flipped through it. But I love the shiny gold-edged pages. I love the challenge of the language. I love that it reminds me of Seattle and my kids, and of Ashland and friends there, in a town we'd hoped to call home--closer to part of our big Earth Family--but a town that only seemed to embrace us for a short time.

A book like this, this book, can pull my heart back to the northwest. And reading it here in New Mexico, by my little electric fireplace, in the same trailer that was home in Oregon, it can also bridge the gap between the two places I want to live, and the people I miss when I'm in one place but not the other. A book like this makes me feel connected to something bigger than my little trailer life. All this, and I haven't even read a single word yet.

Today I want the clouds to hang around, and even rain some more if they feel like it. I don't want to be lured outside by sunshine and blue skies. I want to get my work done and settle in with Shakespeare. I want to get past the gold edges and dive headfirst into the words. I want to be in two places at once, or somehow balanced in between. The combination of a rainy day and Shakespeare feels like a recipe for time travel, and that would be very useful to me these days.