Traveling With Judi . . . .

Ahhhh….a couple days off again – after a busy week with guests, lots of GLORIOUS RAIN, a new baby in our family, and a bear in the tree outside the front door of the Lodge!! So the "bear incident" happened on my day off a couple weeks ago, so I missed all the excitement!! Apparently there was a bear who had been “exploring” around the neighborhood (i.e. some of the employee housing not far away from here), then decided to head straight for the smell of the food in the kitchen! From what I hear through the grapevine, it wandered around the Lodge a few times checking things out – and instead of leaving (duh!!) when people tried to chase him off, he climbed a tree just outside the front door of the Lodge (very near the Front Desk)!! Well sadly, the bear chose the wrong tree to hang out in because the “wildlife management team” on the Ranch had no choice but to shoot him out of the tree! Now on the one hand, I feel kinda sad for the bear; but on the other hand, I didn’t REALL...

I’m always intrigued when the outside world seems to reflect my inside world (or at least I’m able to draw similarities between the two!!) – and the last few weeks have been all about dryness and rain!! The thing that has bothered me the most (externally) since my arrival here are the dry, dusty, drought conditions on the Ranch (and in New Mexico in general). It was like every time I looked outside and saw those dry, yellow, dusty fields outside my window, it reminded me of how I felt inside – dry, dusty and not nourished in the same way I have been in the past!   Since my trip to Taos with Sheryl a couple weeks ago, we have FINALLY been getting rain just about every afternoon   –  and it is a beautiful sight to see   –  incredible (and LOUD) thunder and buckets of rain swooping in and leaving us with a breath of fresh, cool air !! The fields are now a lush green which makes me smile, and I have been feeling that same nourishing rain inside of me as I have fin...