“The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.” ~ George Carlin
A move to the high chaparral of central New Mexico involves the opportunity to meet and greet an amazing array of strangers from what was to me a very unfamiliar part of America. From what I have seen my friends, you are missing out on true humanity by not exploring our great land.
Skip the beaches, the amusement parks and the cities for the back roads of our nation are filled with our fellow-man and it is immediately apparent The process in offering of myself openly and sometimes annoyingly as a genuine, friendly soul is a connection journey with the history, the families and the characters involved with my small, rural lifestyle.
In my travels, I have discovered many very special people and have been blessed to meet and talk with some amazing souls. A select few are more reluctant to smile, to trust or to readily accept anyone into their lives.
“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” – Robert A. Heinlein
Enter the annoyingly friendly dude from California who is actively pursuing a degree in active listening, from this I have been granted access to new and unique lives and stories of the world.
Not that I could have ever imagined someone as annoyingly friendly as I who’s willing to entertain a prohibition of talking, instead I pursue new friendship via intent listening to other’s lives, triumphs and failures.
There are many more words worth listening to than to be spoken by me, I use my amiable ways to connect and to gain access via genuine interest to their family histories and the stories of many of their ancestors. How wondrous indeed!
Winning is seen in our local’s reluctance to accept someone who bugs, as I am less intrusive and resistance is less frequent and less obvious. Shown by more and more friends and acquaintances who smile and now choose to call me Eddie.
I have been curiously visiting with those who run the local businesses simply to introduce myself and to invite them into the dining room. Most responses now that I have been here a while are supportive, a fabulous feeling indeed.
Acceptance of the new general manager of the Shaffer Hotel and Dining Room as the heavily refurbished and very best place to town to meet and eat is gradual for some, but I am seeing and feeling more warmth and feel much more welcome.
I am loving my new world here, my feeling of belonging and the welcoming of new invitations to ranches and into their homes while I feel the pride in their livestock and their horses, while hearing much more about their lives here in rural New Mexico.
A more prevalent factor than where and how I was raised is the importance and pride involved with family and the lineage of a family’s heritage. Not that ancestry was neglected or forgotten in my family, it’s simply that some of the families here can trace their heritage back 400 to 500 years or more.
Several of my new friends here can share stories passed down for these hundreds of years and have fond, vivid memories of their grandparents and great grand parents.
“Or heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.” ~ Walt Disney
New Mexico was inhabited by many Indigenous Peoples of the Americas for centuries, and was part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of the New Spain, was part of Mexico and eventually a U.S. Territory.
The history of New Mexico is quite amazing, the stories from the older locals about our hotel and the past proprietors is fuel for many novels I can assure you.
Happy With Life 