Through My Own Eyes

"I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me

to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes." 

Y.M. Barnwell 

http://www.ymbarnwell.com/

By Sweet Honey in the Rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EpiZ1bpGVVA

By Keali'i Reichel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdapAqrcuvw 

I am remembering the words written by Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell, a vocalist with Sweet Honey in the Rock. The first time I heard her words was in Hawaii. It was through Keali'i Reichel's version of her words that helped me to understand what it is like to remember – remembering something you have never seen and yet finding it to be so familiar. Coming to Ghost Ranch is like coming back "home" you've never been or seen.

Being surrounded by the beauty of Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, a place I've never been, gives me that sense of being home.  There are so many things that are so familiar. The beauty of the earth.

I am sitting by a window looking at Cerro Pedemal, a volcanic mountain that erupted many years ago. Rio Chama (Chama River) meanders through the dry and rugged terrain between Cerro Pedemal and Ghost Ranch.

"How can any one person own such beauty by oneself? The earth, one of the most beautiful things in life, ought to be shared by all." That was my first thought when I was driving into Ghost Ranch. Yet, the idea privatization has divided earth into so many desperate pieces, often resulting in poverty of soul and body.

I am surrounded by and overwhelmed by the beauty of the earth here in Ghost Ranch.

This is what Michael Martone, a writer, says about seeing:

"The midwestern landscape is abstract, and our response to the geology of the region might be similar to our response to the contemporary walls of paint in museums. We are forced to live in our eye."

Although Ghost Ranch is in New Mexico, Southern part of the US, Martone's words resonate with my experience of the geography of Ghost Ranch and its surrounding areas.

I am thinking that faith is our attempt "to live in our eye" so we can recognize each and every thing we encounter as sacred beauty. Our faith is like "wanting memories to teach [us] to see the beauty in the world through [our] own eyes."

Here are some of the beauty I have been surrounded by since my arrival here in Ghost Ranch.