I fell in love with Taos on a two month retreat. I arrived in April; when the hills were sugar coated with powdery snow. For days I sat in a lump on the bed. I burned incense, and stared like a cat into the fluid magenta skin of land, tattooed with sagebrush and cottonwood trees. Taos has many lovers, thousands actually, and many of them live inside her/him. But none like the native Indians that made Taos. Some people say Taos is a vortex, all the spiritual senses are cracked wide open.
Locals tell you many things when you arrive. If you last more than six months, you’re considered a local. Most of the funny stuff happens within six months. Someone who came to Taos before you will draw your attention. Mine was drawn by Mabel Dodge Luhan. In 1917, Mabel was a well heeled avant-garde patron of the arts living in Greenwich Village. She had lived in a villa in Florence, a mansion in New York, and acquired the material possessions people envy. One day an admittance of emptiness poked her soul. She abandoned the animated literary and artistic roundtable discussions, and journeyed to Taos. Within a few months she stripped off her cerebral persona and possessions and fell in love with Tony Luhan. Tony lived on the Taos Pueblo and gave her the moon, stars, and the sun. She never returned to New York. Funny things happen to people in Taos.
My yearning to discover Mabel, was discarded during the years I tried to forget Taos. Like a former lover, my photographs and journals reminded me how much we shared. The first retreat manifested into a two-year residency. I left when the romance went belly-up in the bank. That was 1999.
Three years passed before I could face Taos again. I had butterflies in my stomach thinking about the Gorge: how we hiked into the groin of the canyon where nature expels anything unnatural, and Wheeler Peak at the moment the sun parallels the mountain, and the Taos Inn on a cold winter evening listening to the Spanish Guitars and drinking cheap red wine. I made reservations to stay where I felt my love affair would go into full bloom, The Mabel Dodge Luhan House.
There are no phones in the room, no radio or television; the natural sounds of Taos are symphonic. Mabel and Tony built one of the only two-story adobes in Taos, with a screened in porch to use for sleeping. Inside this house, the elements of nature are molded, carved and bonded in away that you feel like you are inside a true pueblo dwelling. The dining area could be used for a yoga class if you removed the tables and chairs. The senses are opened to explore freedom of movement rather than precious objects of art. From every angle, there is a window with the Taos light spying on you, reminding you nothing can compare to warm sunshine caressing your back. To be continued.
