Hello from New Mexico!

I’m writing this Sunday Letter on a Saturday night,

on an airplane, on my way home to New Mexico.

I haven’t lived in NM for a couple decades now,

but it will always be home to my skin and bones and eyes and heart.

It's rather unlikely and extraordinary that I grew up here,

given that my parents were a farm boy from Virginia

and a city girl from Chicago.

(Though come to think of it,

my dad most loved living in wide open spaces,

and my mom is a badass Aries who is always up for adventure).

Family lore has it that as Dad began looking for rural and faraway places to begin building his medical practice,

Mom said the place had to be big enough to at least have a McDonalds.

And as it turned out,

The McDonalds in my New Mexican hometown was having its grand opening when my dad, mom, and prenatal me arrived to tour the tiny hospital.

via GIPHY

Now that I’m grown, it knocks me out to realize my young adult parents up and moved from Chicago to the middle of the desert,

knowing Not a Soul.

Way before cellphones and interwebs and FaceTime and Amazon,

before our connectedness made the world as small as it is big.

Can you imagine?

Eldest child that I am, I'm pretty sure they were guided to do it for me.

And I am so grateful, so pleased,

that I feel most myself under an enormous sky, bluer than you can imagine,

among the fluttery cottonwoods and sagey air and glinting, bleachy white sun.

So!

When you’re reading this, I’ll be steeping all my cells in Land of Enchantment vibes,

feeling the deepest sense of Belonging, spiked with Perspective and Magic.

And preparing to share it, perhaps, with you.

Love from New Mexico,

Natalie

PS: Yes, with YOU! I’m about to open registration for my 2022 Luminous in Taos retreat, which is happening July 17-24, 2022. If you'd like access to the inside-inside scoop, including first dibs on the limited spots *and* special pricing, add your email here.