Exhausting yet deeply satisfying! How do I explain the last seven months?

In a nutshell: I moved into an NEW downtown studio space in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, taught some fabulous encaustic workshops in the new space, renewed my Mexico residency status, travelled back to the United States TWICE in the spring, and sold my condo in Washington State…whew!

I have been back home in San Miguel for about a month, gathering energy to start “the work” once again and to start thinking about my 2023-2024 classes. I had a lovely-but-too-short visit with my two granddaughters in Las Vegas in March. In late April I was on the plane AGAIN heading to Denver to embark on a 12-day road trip with my son to Moab, Utah, for some camping–then continued to travel “solo” to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, to meet up with my artsy friends from Washington State and San Miguel (thanks Cheri O’Brien and Rae Miller for such good times!). I ended the trip back in Denver to visit with some very old-but-dear friends from my past lives, and my heart was brimming.

My tri-state road trip was AWESOME, to turn an over-used phrase, but I can think of no other word to describe the experience. Southern Utah, especially around Moab, filled my “well” to the brim with ancient red rocks, mysterious petroglyghs, towering cliffs, deeply-cut canyons, diamond-like stars and planets, fabulous sunsets AND the chance to see my son do his thing: climbing! In Northern New Mexico, Rancho Taos, Taos Pueblo, Santa Fe and El Santuario Chimayo blew my mind, and photos cannot do them justice. To be able to touch REAL adobe walls, to feel the deep history of the land of the ancient peoples who came before us, to see the traces of the Spaniards, Americans, and Mexicans who came to “conquer and capture” it all…is very hard to put into words. One must GO there to experience the strong “sense of place” and sense of Spirit that is called Northern New Mexico. I will return again and again!

All images COPYRIGHT 2023 Lisa JonesMoore