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Thinking about PLACE……

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was a work away day,  but when i got home, after the nap,  i placed the first two rocks of the Cairn.  It was very satisfying…choosing a scrap,  folding in the edges,  invisible basting  (Jude Hill~Spirit Cloth).   It went slow.   No hurry.  and as i folded in and stitched,  i thought about all those rocks Out Side.   I was going to take some pics of them this eve,  as i Gave Water,  but not now.  Maybe tomorrow.  Tonight i just looked.

 

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I looked for the pics that best show what it was but couldn't find them.  That means they are tucked into some book somewhere on the bookshelves.  It might be years till i run into them again,  but i did find this one which is ok enough.   This is when i first came here.  That structure is the Asylum that i built out of railway packing crates and salvaged windows.  It was my "studio".  Had a wood stove.  Shelves.  a Workbench.    A lot of Light.  It was built on a flatbed trailer that the old Ford  Econoline Van,  Fern,  pulled here.   That's Fern in the pic too.  What is not pictured is the Airstream trailer that was my Home then.  She wasn't here yet.   But the Point of this pic is that there was

nothing

here  when i came.   Just some dried out stumps of Kochia weed.  It was August, 1995,  i think.  Place.  The Middle of NoWhere.   There weren't even any Rocks.  Every single Rock that is here today,  I brought here.  Sometimes one by one.   Sometimes 10 by 10.  But i brought them.  Some are ones i brought in that old van Fern from the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan.  Those rocks still remember their original Place.  They are different now.  Wind has worked them into different forms.    It is said that rocks will tell you stories.  

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34 responses to “Thinking about PLACE……”

  1. Jan Avatar
    Jan

    what drew you there grace?

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  2. grace Avatar
    grace

    Circumstance.
    i love that word…circumstance…
    Circumstance.
    i had just acquired the Maniac…succumbed for the final time to believing in Love…as in Romantic Love…male/female love. Love, like in Valentines Day love. and i had two large dogs. Love again. and the Place where i was living
    had AGAIN been sold. Needed to go. Not a lot of time. Needed to go. and a friend told me about an old man, who owned a lot of land all over because of the Spanish Land Grant and gave a phone number and i called him…Sy Sysneros, and he met us here. He said it was the Last of the Mohecans. Pay him $128 dollars a month until $10,000
    was met and it was ours. Don’t pay and it was still his.
    A hand shake. No asking anymore. Even last names. Just the hand shake. Done. Papers signed. $128.00 per month paid and a long time ago now, done with.
    here’s where the Eye of the Beholder comes in.

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  3. grace Avatar
    grace

    excuse the spelling. i am by nature Phonetic…Mohicans

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  4. tracy Avatar
    tracy

    Amazing. 19 years! You’ve done really well. Even without money, work counts! Can’t say what I mean. Your place seems even more wonderful to me now.

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  5. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    you are very brave Grace!

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  6. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    I’ve been looking in every day, in love with all that happens here. i seem to have little to say though…and that’s okay…I’m here just a few more days then off maybe till the end of June. If I have access I’ll look in. You’re new building project is enterprising…and the cloth–that blue–that orange–that eye (like the eye you sent me on that cloth you gave me)…well, I’m just about out of energy–a few more tasks then oblivion…oh, tonight at writing group we used this from Antonio Machado for a writing prompt (Gorgeous-from the chapter ‘receiving forgiveness’ in Pat Schneiders “How The Light Gets In”):
    “Last night as I was sleeping I dreamed–Oh marvelous error–that I had a beehive in my heart, and the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures.”

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  7. ² Avatar
    ²

    that’s thrue… you are
    sommethimes i like
    somethimes is difficult

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  8. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Didn’t read this until this morning and I don’t know why but seeing how it was and knowing how IT IS, brought something to my heart and a tear to my eye. Each rock, hand placed. Each grass, tree, shrub, flower, vegetable patch, hand placed. And we speak of place and there are landscapes that exist in our minds, but the ones that grab hold of our hearts, well, those landscapes are Home.
    Disregard my notion of suggesting that the wavy strips at the bottom of the cloth, maybe could be the possible goat corridor. Now I get the idea of the cairn. The stones/rocks do indeed tell a story and that story needs to be stitched, needs to be presented on cloth because it is the story of this place, this out in the middle of nowhere patch of land that through love, devotion and incredibly hard work has become a thriving oasis, what you referred to in the past as your substation. This patch of out in the middle of nowhere has become a sanctuary of spirit and dwelling.

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  9. donna wilkinson Avatar
    donna wilkinson

    what of the old man I love a story Love is good sometimes it hurts so we can love rocks trees our land even goats i love my totems new every day.

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  10. Jan Avatar
    Jan

    you have created Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. it’s about scale. the land. the cloth. after that lovely introduction to Rising Appalachia a week or so back I discovered another song of theirs. . . “Scale Down.”

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  11. Cynthia Avatar
    Cynthia

    so magical the word…and so practical the reality..even with the magical lingering….cairn….and so wonderful to see what you have created..formed..the people, the earth, the cloth..all complex…coming from you and then becoming their own entities… you know this one??
    “You can have the other words – chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly but I’ll take it.”
    – Mary Oliver
    it is all you..with thought and purpose and meaningful drift….gentle day grace

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  12. KAMFreeman Avatar
    KAMFreeman

    Grace the somewhere that has been transformed, rock by rock, tree by tree, planting of gardens, some staying some leaving with weather and wind..and the living structures evolving…time has shaped and formed and reshaped and molded and opened and received the land, this place…home. Now the goats, more home, more growing and changing. A heart centered story of the heart and energy and yes, the love you have placed on and in and above and around this plot of land to stir and shape, imagine and believe in the possibilities of what can be on and in and through this land. The story reaches into the depths of my being and I am so blessed to have shared in the story …thank you for your words and pictures that have for so long now been a piece of my every day.
    From the first footfall on the land to this day there has evolved much beauty and heart….blessing sweet one as you continue the story.

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  13. Els Avatar
    Els

    What a place you made Grace !
    (hey and what’s the difference : rocks or scraps … as long as it’s s l o w !)

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  14. kathy dorfer Avatar
    kathy dorfer

    amazing from the beginning . vision quest is a mighty powerful thing .
    so glad to be along for the ride …. looking forward to more cloth.
    aren’t rocks wonderful ?
    xxoo

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  15. jude Avatar
    jude

    I always wonder, if we go, how long it will take for it to go back the way it was.

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  16. grace Avatar
    grace

    that is something that i “work” with off and on, always
    have. What to think of creating something that would not
    of it’s own exist. I have asked so many people…What
    was here? Before Mr. Sysneros subdivided the land? What
    WAS it? and i have not gotten a good answer, good meaning
    one that makes somekind of Sense. All i can know is that
    for sure, it has always been Flood Plain of the Rio Grande which is only a few miles to the East. Back in the day before they trapped and imprisoned the Great River, it flooded with some intermitant regularity. All over in the sand here are tiny “blue eyed” clam shells, evidence of that. There were Piro first people who wandered along here. But i don’t think they lived here. If the River
    flooded, then we could assume there would be things like
    River Willow. Maybe even Cottonwood. But there is no
    sign around me of Cottonwood and not because it was cleared for farming. The earth under my feet here has never been planted, farmed. It was sand.
    I think it would take one circle of seasons for most of it to be gone. The Salt Cedar would remain. There are two.
    The mother and her one child. The Desert Willow might
    remain…there are 3. But probably not for long. The two
    young Cottonwoods?, i don’t know. There are aquifers…underground riverlets of water not too far below and maybe the Cottonwoods could connect to them? They are Able, but would they.
    I think about this, almost every day when i give water.
    Maybe 2 years at the most.
    but then, if we go, hopefully we will have the foresight to release the River from her dams. Let Her make of it all what She can. Up north from here on Isleta Pueblo, the Rio Grande is called the Blue Mother. Who knows what the Blue Mother might re~create???????????
    and…now…there would be the rocks. the rocks. the rocks that i have brought here. They would remain.

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  17. grace Avatar
    grace

    it is. sometimes difficult, but what it Gives is so much.

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  18. grace Avatar
    grace

    i was looking for the Bottom Line during that time. I found it.

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  19. grace Avatar
    grace

    don’t know, brave….it’s something different. something
    like Just Going.

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  20. grace Avatar
    grace

    i want to dream of a beehive in my heart

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  21. grace Avatar
    grace

    the cairn. the cairn. the cairn.
    the cairn.

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  22. grace Avatar
    grace

    all kinds of Love. it’s quite Wonder Full, these all kinds of Love, like really, just SO wonderful

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  23. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. Scale Down. they are so beautiful to me, these two
    young sisters…speaking Truth in their own elegant beauty

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  24. grace Avatar
    grace

    for many years i have tried to understand Grace

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  25. grace Avatar
    grace

    it’s been a long time, hasn’t it. and it has changed,
    in unexpected ways, but we Go. We do
    just go

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  26. grace Avatar
    grace

    oh, hey Els…thank you so much for stopping here…means
    a lot…….Love

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  27. grace Avatar
    grace

    the “quest”. yup. sweeps us along in it’s momentum of
    Energy and we Go and work to keep up….LOVE

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  28. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    yeah, know what you mean, funny where we end up!

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  29. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    It is sure something to see this land in the early days, this land you have embraced.

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  30. dee Avatar
    dee

    wow. such trust and faith.

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  31. grace Avatar
    grace

    i was looking for the bottom line.

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  32. grace Avatar
    grace

    and was embraced By…

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  33. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Yes, that too.

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  34. grace Avatar
    grace

    it’s Benevolence is Stunning. All you need is heart.

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