“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
Anne Rice, about Franz Kafka
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My heart ached for New Mexico this weekend. There’s a heartsickness I experience over that land like I’ve never experienced before. It’s what I feel when I’m away from my husband. It’s what I feel when I miss my family. It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain, but I can only describe as a grieving, deep-seated longing.
Since we’ve been back from New Mexico, the longing comes and goes. It doesn’t seem like it’s ever fully gone – but it just settles beneath the surface of the day-to-day demands. Life carries on as usual, but there’s a new dimension – a new thread – that has been woven into our existence.
I feel like I’ve been constantly processing the impact of our trip for months now. When we got home, we were met repeatedly with the question, “How was your trip?” and I found myself unable to put our experience into words. It wasn’t good or great or wonderful or exciting. It was… something else altogether. Continue reading “New Mexico, the Muse: Finding Creative Freedom in the Desert”