…ng here feels appropriate, not only because there’s family to see and dogs to pet, but also because I have a history of looking to New Mexico as a place where I can collect myself and return to neutral — desert landscape as blank slate. It feels right to pause briefly here on my long trip to the other coast, to watch as winds whip furiously through the tall grasses and the swirling dust blots all the mountain views, to live another transition across these broadening days.