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| Shot from my back porch, 9 AM, October 10, 2015... (click to enlarge) |
It's a beautiful day in New Mexico; the first of its kind this week. I'd been feeling badly about not yet visiting the Balloon Fiesta, which has been going on since October 3. But, as it happens, as I was passing by the patio window overlooking my backyard this morning, it almost seemed the Balloon Fiesta had come to me! Rising over the wall behind my house, so close I could see its human navigators and hear the gas jets firing, was the balloon shown above.
Thanks, guys, you made my day!
Searching around YouTube for some Fiesta videos, I came upon this one, downloaded yesterday by "Dirt Rancher", featuring a neighborhood somewhat similar to mine, but, with a whole lot more activity.
Ah, autumn in Albuquerque... the video below was shot by Russell Contreras as he drove to work a couple of days ago...
No, I'm not, yet, back blogging... and won't be for a couple of weeks... but, it occurs to me that this is actually the anniversary of the day I first arrived in New Mexico last year, and is sort of a sequel to this post.
It is also my father's birthday. I recently came across an old file I'd written about a dream I had a year after his death... which I intended to post on PMB, but never did. I've decided to upload it here. It reads as follows:
"I'm up a little early this morning after a tiny dream from my father. At least I tend to think dreams like this are "message dreams;" that is, the dream wasn't about my father as much as it was from him.
In the dream I was driving up the side of a mountain... but, I'm not actually sure I was driving a conventional car. I'd say it was sort of a hover car except that it was - by some mechanism - still touching the earth in some way. It was an incredibally steep and narrow mountain - kind of like a true peak except flat on top. And, after reaching the summit, I sort of hovered around it and could see a type of monument had been erected there... almost like a type of Stonehenge. I was pleasantly surprised, as I knew it was my father who had created it, and I never knew he would or could create anything like it. At the same time - that is, it seemed like a later time in the dream, but, was occurring simultaneously as well - I was drivng and my father was with me. He wanted to show me something: the thing I had already seen. He was happy in the dream... and the most endearing thing about the monument (the Stonehenge) he had erected was that, seen from the air, it was a huge smiley face!
In reality, Dad and I were not terribly "smiley-face" sorts of people... and certainly "smiley-face" would not describe me now. But, perhaps, it does describe some eperience of my Dad's now.
Which, in some way, reassures me, because my Dad died in 2001.
While I realize that subjective experiences mean nothing in a scientific sense, and while I realize that my experiences do not obviously alter the world at large, I still feel it is necessary that we share experiences of this sort.
It is, after all, not the "hive mind" which ultimately changes things. Change is brought about by those tiny baby steps that each individual takes which ultimately changes the playing field. No species evolves en masse, so to speak. It begins with the one mutation... or, possibly several mutations that occur simultaneously across the board."
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Lovely post, a blessing, not in disguise! And I agree about individual mutations too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, TB. The ballon was a magical experience. The mutation bit is a core belief of mine that keeps me hanging in there. The dream about my dad comforts me still; although seemingly a product of my unconscious, ultimately, it's my last memory of him.
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