
follow Canyon Layers © 2013 Bo Mackison
go here Listen to your life.
See it for the fathomless mystery that it is . . .
Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart
Of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments
and life itself is grace.
~ Frederich Buechner
https://www.dentistcorpuschristitexas.com/services/ Traveling.
https://crinerorthopedics.com/fall-sports-injury-prevention-tips/ Silence is so loud, all of my senses on alert. Bees buzzing in pockets of blooming brittlebush, yellow blossoms swollen with pollen laden landing strips. They buzz my head when I lean in for a closer look.
Order Soma Online I take in the spectacle. Cactus with upturned octopus arms stretching towards the sky, mighty saguaro of cartoon fame. Rocks bleeding rusty reds and oranges. I greet these ancients on their sacred ground. I, the newcomer, stare and gawk and take snapshots to send home.
Town is twenty-five miles north – four concrete block houses, an RV park dwarfed by rows of fifty year old palm trees, Shady Palms it’s called. Two gas stations. A faded sign at Edith’s Rock Shop advertises cheap crystals and polished gems.
There’s a diner, Grandma’s Cafe. A border patrol truck, white with the familiar green stripe, is angle parked at the entrance. I eat what the locals eat – bean burritos for breakfast, hot tortillas just flipped on the griddle, strong coffee.
Formica tables and folding chairs fill the room. And a maple dining set, table with two leaves, eight matching chairs, a bouquet of plastic roses centered on a doily. It’s the only available table, yet no one sits there.
The newspaper is a six page shopper with a few local items – a music benefit for a kid with leukemia, a Saturday night BBQ at the church in Ajo, ads for health care and Mexican insurance.
Coke and bottled water pack the refrigerated case, two bucks a bottle if you want something cold to drink. This is the desert.
The cook is Marjie, she’s the waitress, cashier, the owner, too. The regulars ask about her newest grand-baby, Jesus, her fifth, the first boy. “Born at midnight” she says, “Five pounds, six ounces. Already he’s a screamer. Aye yi yi.”
She half-smiles when I offer my congratulation, then balances a tray of dirty dishes half on her hip, hums with the radio static as she disappears into the kitchen.
————–
Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She explores the whole and the fragments, the extra-ordinary and the ordinary.
You could retitle this “A day in the life of ….” Great post. Loved the glimpse into this area.
Definitely a Day in the Life post. I love to explore the character of a region.
Absolutely incredible “slice of life” of your new world. I could smell the burritos cookin’ and now I have a rumbly in my tumbly. Your blog is a gem.
Those burritos were definitely on high on the yummy scale. 🙂
We used to kid about the “University of Southern Ajo”.
U of SA? Must be the team with the Organ Pipe Cacti mascots!