Living Rootless: Las Cruces, New Mexico: Christmas Day

Monday, December 26, 2022

Las Cruces, New Mexico: Christmas Day

A Christmas Day fire in the fireplace via youtube. December 2022.

In the early morning, while my brewing coffee dripped into the carafe, I opened the blinds in the kitchen to welcome the daylight and to access the view of the desert ridge next to the house. I thought of my mother, who opened her wooden window shutters every morning to summon the day into her house. From her, perhaps, I learned that, to the extent we are able, we create the environment we wish to have around us.

I connected with long-distance family and friends, exchanging Christmas greetings, via phone calls, texts, or emails.

I went on a walk. Like that of some birds and mammals, my attention got caught by brightly colored or shiny things, both natural and human-made.

Christmas Day walk in Las Cruces neighborhood. Colorful string. December 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

Christmas Day walk in Las Cruces neighborhood. Colorful misshapen thing. December 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

Christmas Day walk in Las Cruces neighborhood. Bright purple thing. December 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

And I even saw an addition to the carcass collection. A bird pellet.

Bird pellet on Christmas Day walk. December 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

Here is a slide show that includes this and other walks in my occasional Las Cruces neighborhood.

I felt cozy and soothed by way of a Youtube crackling fire in a hearth on my host's big screen TV.

I listened to Handel's Messiah, with its soaring, endorphin-producing sounds of blended voices and instruments. Doing this is, in part, a memorial to my father, a complicated man, who liked to listen to Messiah at Christmas.