the west

When I was in New Mexico, I watched the earth change everyday. It was the first time in my entire life when I had consecutive days to enjoy the season of Fall. Fall is an incredible time of year, because nothing stays the same from wind storm to wind storm. What leaves were stuck like glue to branches are forgotten about as winds carelessly rip them apart.

      In the West, temperatures are never consistent. What was blooming one day will die the next day in an overnight freeze. Branches blow and leaves retreat. Green, soft and flowing grasses become yellow strands of straw. And everyday, while in New Mexico, I was lucky enough to notice this change. To notice enough the change that happened from day-to-day. 

    I wrote to Tate and told him how I didn't understand why and how people can be so afraid of change when it happens so regularly and beautifully in nature. But then I remembered how this was the first time in my life I was lucky enough to enjoy Fall everyday, to see the small changes that mostly go unnoticed.  People don't take the time to see the small changes, they just seem to care when it goes from Summer to Fall to Winter to Spring, and nothing in between. It's like we expect the big changes and are annoyed by them, but the small day-to-day changes- we will never have time for.

      I thought to myself, in an idealistic way, how we should all take two weeks of our lives to come to New Mexico in September/October to watch the leaves change colors. How a valley can be the same valley no matter the season, unless you let it be more. The same valley can change everyday.

      When I was in New Mexico, I watched the earth change everyday. Every single day, the earth changed.