For the past twenty five years or so, New Mexico has been a winter destination. Luminarias. Piñon fires. Watching snowflakes dance from the sky. Walks on crunchy snow paths. Cappacinos in front of the fireplace.

I’d forgotten how beautiful New Mexico is in the summer.

Instead of a fire, sunflowers.

A morning spent at the Farmer’s Market loving the sights, conversations, and buying food fresh from farms and bakeries for meals later.

A pleasant walk to visit our neighbors, the llamas.

Meals eaten, inside or outside? Outside, please.

Doors and windows. Open.

And flowers. Ah, the flowers! Everywhere.

The plan had been: a nearly two week return trip to Iceland and the Faroe Islands. In January, sitting at the Coffee Apothecary in Taos, my best friend and I had booked rooms and imagined our itinerary.

Today, when our plan had been to be hiking in west Iceland, my friend and I are sitting once again in the Coffee Apothecary drinking our morning coffee on our way to the Taos Farmer’s Market.

In May, on her way home from a church meeting, my friend’s car was slammed into by a drunk driver. Her car was totaled, and a week later she was unable to walk.

We held on to the trip back to the Faroes as a harbinger of hope. She slowly progressed through the labyrinth of the medical system, and with great courage and persistence, began to move beyond her couch home. A wheelchair. A walker. Then her hiking stick used as a cane.

At the end of July, it became clear that a long trip was not feasible at this time. She and I decided to try an easier trip to a familiar place, back to Taos.

A slow trip. For healing.

On the Wednesday before I left, during the Eucharist at the Diocesan Center, we offered the Sacrament of Healing, I was anointed and prayed for. Not as seriously injured as my best friend, I knew the trip would be a healing trip for both us.

In one of the most beautiful places in the world.

……..Every day I walk out into the world
to be dazzled, then to be reflective.
It suffices, it is all comfort –
along with human love…..

( from Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond by Mary Oliver)