tail of turquoise scales
there on Oklahoma rock
posing like a boss

I got one poem in before national poetry month ended!
And yes, I do realize I have used the word boss two days in a row. 

It had been such a long time since we had headed southwest to blow kisses to the buffalo.  I really wanted to make another trip before we move to Arizona.  I needed to say good-bye.

We took our Josey with us.  She’s a sweet and scrappy little thing, terrified of all the peoples.  Daily, she cries, RUN FOR YOUR CANINE LIVES, THEY IS MURDERING THE POUND PUPPIES TODAY!

I love her spirit.  She has come such a long way since we brought her home from that cage. That cage she had lived the first six months of her life.  She will wrestle with me now.  Oh how she sasses me.  I tell her to take her trash talk somewhere else.  She throws in a few extra growls and howls for good measure.  I love that about her.

This was Josey’s first outing, other than her trips to the vet, groomer and the occasional car ride when we have ranch showings.  (we had another one today, btw)  We assumed Meteorology Man would have to carry her through the trails meandering through the mountains.

Well, little Miss Fragile Thing rocked the trails like a boss. 
Like a freaking canine boss.

And I’m pretty sure Joe and Macy had to carry their little Khai the entire hike.  Or not, but that is our story.
Because we are a freaking canine boss.

I’m still here.

Still shivering here under this electric blanket,
believing spring really will come.

Or at the very least, the unleashing of hell.

I’m cold, and welcome anything resonating some sensation of heat.

We had a showing on the ranch last Friday.

The potential buyer said he needed more land.

But, if you already knew you needed more than 42 acres, why bother looking?

I remember having that same issue in NY while we were trying to sell our 1830′s brick Victorian.  Oh 5000 sq ft is just too big for our family.  We wouldn’t know what to do with all this space.  Used to drive me nuts. 

I just wish the family that really wants the ranch could buy it, but they have yet to sell their own place.  This property makes her swoon.  She cried when we sold it the first time.  And then contacted us when she saw it was back on the market. Yes, that’s who should live here. Someone whose soul can hear this land, give it what it needs, and receive what it offers.  If money should fall down from the heavens, or a winning lottery ticket, we would totally give this place to her.  I like giving better than selling.

Meteorology Man has been applying for jobs in Arizona.  He’s had a good run at working from home, but his company is looking a bit weak in the knees with all the government budget issues.  Hopefully Tucson, considering that is where this glorious place sits.  Well, it’s near there anyway.  Out in the middle of nowhere, a little town with open range for the cattle.  The roads are literally one lane, with pull-offs every now and then.  But, we rarely ran across anyone else on the road.  It really does feel like you are in an episode of High Chaparral, with the trails and natural desert landscape.

To get to the actual town, you have to travel about five miles of these glorious cattle paths.  No sarcasm.  This totally makes me happy.  The town is along the highway and consists of a gas station convenience store, a thrift shop and this place. 

The taco shop.  We checked it out while we were there.  They make the flour tortillas fresh to order.  Glorious, I tell you.  The girl at the counter let my Hunky sample the Hibiscus tea.  He ordered a large, drank it all and then we hit the road to Phoenix.  He later discovered, Hibiscus tea can cause some people to do squirrelly things and you really shouldn’t drive while drinking it for the first time.  oops.  Thankfully, he was fine.  He’s a tall glass of water. Takes more than a little flower water to make him squirrelly.

Me, on the other hand, can get squirrelly standing downwind from an open bottle of Nyquil.

Speaking of squirrelly (in a good squirrelly kind of way), you have to check out this video my daughter and son-in-law created.  I find it brilliant. 
But, you be the judge. 

I just read a post written by my daughter.

Danged booger butt made me cry.
It’s okay.
She let’s me call her danged booger butt.

She made me realize something.

I’m holding back from you.

I’m giving weight to something I shouldn’t.

Instead of sharing my journey,
this freaking crazy journey,

I am sitting on all these glorious things in my life.

Why, you ask.

For fear of the ridicule.

No, not really fear of the ridicule,

but fear of me getting irritated with those who like to keep everyone in their self-made little boxes.

Like my daughter says, Meteorology Man and I hardly fall into the category of following the All American Dream.

I know our plans have been rather unpredictable and ever-changing,
appearing as though we haven’t a brain in our head,
and as that may be true,
we use our heart,
not our minds to live our lives.

You don’t choose to love eight children birthed by someone else with your mind.

It’s not your mind that says, Hey, lets run a dog rescue.

It’s that sloppy, messy, mushy soft thing in your body that makes those decisions.

It’s just how we roll.

So, even though we have wandered all over with the decision to leave Watering Hole Ranch, we have learned much, making each zig and each zag so worth it.

Some folks’ dreams allow them to stay in the same place for 30 plus years.

Ours, not so much.

For whatever reasons,
our lives,
our souls,
our destinations have been ever-changing.

But, as I realize more and more,
it’s not the arrival,
it’s what we see along the way,
it’s who we meet at each fork in the road,
it’s what happens in our hearts when we feel our knees shake
because we don’t really know which way to go.

Finding it hard to leave the soul things we have connected to during a rest along the cow path.

I guess what I am trying to say is,
I have totally pulled back from you for fear of your response.
Of my own response.

And that’s just not right.

I know the majority of you are for me,
I can feel your excitement and support.

And for those who may not understand all the changes and uncertainty,
I need to realize it’s not my place to repeatedly explain and justify our reasons.
If they never get it, that’s okay.

We all walk, stumble, crawl a different cow path,
and if all we take away from life is that one glorious thing,
well done.

I have fought hard this next fork.
Reality can be harsh,
punching you in the gut,
daring you to pick up your beaten body from the ground.

Everything I love is here.

Everything but health.

Take away health,
and the dreams tumble down like a stack of Jenga blocks.

I have to be honest.
I have lived dreams,
taken in the horizons that cause soul to soar.

I have no place for complaint.
I have not been denied. 

There comes a time when we release what needs released
to take hold of new things.
Old things down deep, really.

My body no longer has the capacity to retain its own body heat,
forcing me to spend even the mild winter of Oklahoma under an electric blanket,
neglecting all that calls my name.

There is no strength to tend to all the glorious duties pleasures of Watering Hole Ranch.
It would not be right to watch its beauty fall down around me,
because I am too selfish, weak, unwilling to release it.

After much encouragement from my Hunky,
we have once again put WHR back on the market.

If you are not afraid of the zigs and the zags and the uncertain cow path,
feel free to check out the POSSIBLE place we found to downsize near Tucson, Arizona.

Hey.  It’s nice having you mangy varmints on our journey. 

Our flight arrived around ten last night.

It was eighty something degrees.

At night, people.

Without the sun.

Eighty degrees.

*happy sigh*

A wild woman could get used to this.

In fact, she plans to do just that,
no matter how outrageous you think she is.

And her little dogs, too.

So, just where is wild woman?

Any guesses?

(edit) You mangy varmints had me all over this country.  You had some pretty good guesses.  Yesterday’s photo was taken in Phoenix.  Today I woke up in Tucson.   Life is good.