Home in the Woods, Stateside

After a 12 hour plane flight, a 12 hour layover in Los Angeles, a 2 hour flight to hop over to New Mexico - not to mention after 7 and 1/2 months out of the country - I was hungry, exhausted, greasy and more than ready to fall face-first into my bed. But that wasn't to happen for at least a couple more days. Within 3 hours of dropping my backpack at home, I was packed up and loaded into the car to head north to go camping for the weekend. As I sat in the backseat practically unconscious, I thought only of how much I wanted to be clean and to be at my house.

But when you live a nomadic life and so do some of those closest to you, time is of the essence. My schedule in New Mexico overlapped only for 4 days with that of my beautiful cousin Emily, who is moving to Arizona for the summer and will return only once I have already packed up for the Deep South. Thus, we decided to spend those 4 days together in our favorite spot in the Southwest - El Vado Lake.

If you drive 3 hours due north from Albuquerque along dusty highway I-25 spotted with blooming cactus and steep walls of rock kissing the cloudless blue sky, you will reach Tierra Amarilla. Neighboring the tiny, rural village is man-made El Vado Lake. While the lake was originally created by building a dam to help retain water flowing from the Colorado River to later use for irrigation, man's touch cannot be seen anywhere else surrounding the glass-like water. You camp where you want. You sleep where it's flat enough. And you can water-ski until you sink under from pure exhaustion.

As soon as I stepped out of the car and took a deep breath of pine sap and mountain breeze, I felt like I was home. All the thoughts I had on the plane worrying about the future and about how to make fast money, all the tears I had fought back about leaving Latin America and saying goodbye to the places and people I had fallen in love with, all concerns and past memories seemed to slip away with the lake's tide. And I was left just in this one moment, in the here and now.

They say home is where the heart is. I agree, you can make a home anywhere as long as you find happiness there. But at the same time, I'm convinced that there are some places that are inexplicably home. Some places that no matter where you are in your life's journey, you are filled with pure bliss and serenity.

While I was less than eager to spend my immediate arrival back to the States camping, being dirty, and sleeping not in a bed but the ground, I can now not think of a better way to have returned to the U.S. of A. Away from cell phones, computers, news and media, advertising and consumerism. But instead with my family, our puppy, and natural New Mexico.

As much of my heart as I left in Latin America, some of it still remains this side of the Mexican border.