Sunday, I visited the Abo Ruins west of Mountainair, NM. I have lived in this state all my life, and this was my first stop at Abo. I was delightfully surprised not only at its ancient history, but the beauty of the land itself.
Towards the end of my visit, I made one last walk by this ghost of past lives house. These dwellings date from the 1620's. As I stopped to snap a photo, I visualized the late autumn sun warming the old patriarch's bones as he leaned against the the baked bricks of the adobe. Others including children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces, nephews gathered round to listen to the great stories the ancient ones told.
Their lives were simple, yet with more elegance than anything we experience in our hectic endless movement to and fro chasing some dream or chained to some demanding schedule.
The rooms in the adobes weren't large by any standards, nor were they richly appointed. Simple was the watch word of their lives.
Walls 18" thick kept the little dwelling very cool in the summer months when it was too hot to wander about out of doors, as well as, were snug and warm in the cold wintry months when snows covered this shallow hidden valley.
I had no idea these people were adapt at pottery making, a skill I thought emerged much later. They used this skill to cover the stream bed with a thin blanket of slate like material which ensured a catch basin full of water when the days of drought hadn't yet dried up their life giving liquid.
to the right is a very clear example of their expertise. Resourceful, imaginative, creative are just a few of the words that spring to mind regarding these incredible people. One of my husband's first comments upon viewing these photos was of the precision corners of their architecture.
We think our culture is so advanced, yet without all our technological advances, these people put us to shame with their manual labor, and simple, crude tools.
While I was wandering towards the early church, I noticed a grave off to one side, tended in typical New Mexican fashion with flowers, virgin mary, and angels.
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