Pie Town, Vagabonding, and More.

Being vulnerable comes at a price: there are strings attached.


Got interested in "Pie Town" New Mexico recently. I've never been there but I'm intrigued. They get profiled now and then by various magazines (like the Smithsonian ). I think it's because of the name. I hear it's about two buildings on the lesser traveled highway across New Mexico. Blink, and you miss it. If nothing else you stop there and get some really good pie. We haven't gone there yet because we don't have a good enough reason to go, but that may change. The tiny town was once profiled on the heels of the great depression. I'm wanting to do a photo essay of my own. Have to overcome my shyness about asking people to share of themselves in that kind of situation too. I don't have a press pass anymore, I'm freelance now. No badge to hide behind. People want to know that they are being viewed with humanity and compassion. There's a lot of trust there when somebody offers to open up to you. We've made ourselves vulnerable lately.

Just to clear up any confusion from our last newsletter: we're not "Vagabonds" (that's a literal quote) we have an address, we have a home, and while we've discovered quite a bit of happiness on the rural 40 acres that we occupy, we're thinking it would be better to be closer to a larger town where it would be easier to conduct our various business interests. We do travel on business at times, and sometimes just for the soul-fulfillment of seeing new sights and meeting new people, but all who wander are certainly not lost.

Something I call "poisoned pill" communicating is when somebody offers something in the guise of being helpful which is actually just an excuse to give you some grief. Maybe you've experienced this. It's similar to being handed a vanilla ice cream cone with strychnine sprinkles. Like . . . I never considered the label "Vagabond" to be a compliment, but it's just innocuous enough to escape being directly confronted over it. Hmmm, this ice cream tastes awfully funny. We got a lot of super nice emails this week from people offering us references as we seek out alliances with healing arts centers, spiritual bookstores and the like. We also received many kind condolences over the loss of our beloved cat about a week ago,--and then we got this one weird one from a person we hadn't heard from in years, and the last interaction wasn't pleasant either. The passive-aggressive stuff is hard to read and even harder to respond to. I had to resist the desire to dissect it for you here. It's just not worth it. Lets just say, I haven't sent any emails like this lately, "Hey, Robin, you little "scamp" you, I know we haven't spoken in years, but I thought you'd want to know how great my new girlfriend Suzy is. She's a "master." You might want to hit her up for some tips. Here's her phone number."
It's difficult to even fathom the impulse to send something like that.

On the upside we got another offer from a benefactor who has faith in what we do and just wants us to see an easier time doing it. That means assisting us to relocate to a larger population center when the time and conditions are right. We may have to tone down our vagabonding ways though, in order to accept the help.