Heads or Tails ~ Photograph

The theme/prompt for THIS week, September 29, is:

TAILS - "Photograph"

Share any photograph and explain why you did.

I'd like to share a photo I took while staying in New Mexico. I found this fabulous round stone house just outside of Abiquiu. It was built by a woman named Pat, and she rents it out to very special people, and since I am so special I was blessed to stay there for 3 weeks a few years ago.

The time of my stay will always be a fantastic, memorable event. I flew there for the first time, rather than making the cross-country drive, and rented an auto for the drive north from Albuquerque to Abiquiu. My favorite time of year to visit is August, because that is the most likely time to experience thunderstorms, which I love to watch. The setting of the property is way out in the middle of nowhere, with a clear, perfect view of Pedernal looking west. There is a whole lot of nothing there, except beauty in the landscape, the sky, everything. I understand why Georgia O'Keeffe stated that "if you ever go to New Mexico, it will itch you for the rest of your life." I found it to be true.

On this particular occasion for my visit, I was celebrating the end of my divorce from hell. It was caustic, ugly, long, stressful, horrible, painful, long, endless, high drama...did I say long?
Whatever. I decided to give myself the gift of beauty and serenity so I high-tailed it to one of my favorite spots on earth. I was free and the open road felt so good as I drove my way north to my destination. I made a brief stop in Santa Fe to pick up essentials like wine, food... and, well, wine. I arrived just before dark and settled in. I felt as though I was home.

My first evening there was fruitful. As the sun set, the clouds began clustering and I just knew that a late-night storm was beginning to brew. The house has a small sheltered portal on the east side just below the hill, and I sat there in the dark, watching the lightening strikes above the desert. Needless to say, I had opened one of the bottles of wine I had picked up and after a few glasses I decided I was primed for capturing a lightening bolt with my camera. It was pure luck, I tell you. This is what I got ~






Now, you may think this is nothing special, but it is special to me because I had no idea what I was doing, and I got this with a hand-held camera that I didn't know how to operate AT ALL. I was clueless when it came to all the buttons and bells on the thing, but it worked well enough for me to have a shot of New Mexico lightening to take back to Wisconsin with me. It was worth it. I sat out there every night of my time there, and saw the most fantastic lightening storms ever but was never able to get a shot like this again. Must have been the vino.

I love the spirit-like figure on the left. I believe it was the Holy Spirit accompanying me on that late-August evening. It speaks of such enormous power and is truly a fitting expression of my time spent there. It was a time of renewal and spiritual reflection. I felt that I had, in some manner, been touched by the hand of the Divine.
And most certainly, blessed.


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