Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Angel Fire

We visited the memorial this week.  Angel Fire is starting to build housing around the memorial - but it is still a peaceful beautiful site today.  We watched part of the HBO special Dear America:  Letters From Vietnam while we were there.  The whole experience was really touching.

Descanso in the Trees

Three Things I Know For Sure

The word I chose on January 1, 2010 for the year was "mystery" - I have learned so far that mystery is very painful and can bring you to the depths of dispair depsite the hope that there will be answers. I have also learned that mystery can bring the most amazing joy when the answers are revealed. Mystery leaves room for the beauty of grace.

The second thing I know is that this song "Hallujah" is one of the most amazing songs ever heard performed. Interestingly, it was written and first performed by Leonard Cohen, but after listening to his performances of the song, I think he is maybe the worst performer ever for this song. It is actually a little surprising that other artists recognized the song's beauty despite his performances. It is an amazing song, and the lyrics alone are so powerless compared to the way it can be performed (so I just can't include them in this post). The best performances I have heard so far are by Lee DeWyze, K.D. Lang, and Justin Timberlake who sang the song to raise funds for Haiti. Timberlake's isn't a perfect rendition of the song, but the heart and soul is in the song and therefore the beauty exists. It is the most beautiful chilling song I have ever heard performed. And it means something completely different to me every time I hear it.

The third thing I have been pondering is death. If I get to die doing something I love - even something as simple as driving my car home from work and listening to music I love - there isn't a better way to go. Or even something as simple as drinking coffee at the kitchen table. Or for those who love flying - dying in a plane or balloon accident, there might be a great deal of stress at the very end, but given the options of loving your life and living it fully, or living carefully to an old age where you don't understand what is happening to you.... what would be better - really, if this choice was ours to make - what would be better? It is a revelation I have be coming to for many years and I think my descansos project has clarified this (this is not the lesson I was planning to learn from the descacnsos project). Of course, not every accident is an act of beauty and most accidents and deaths involve eminence pain and question, but if love, death, and simplicity can tied together - I hope that there is room for joy and uplifting forgiveness.

Valentine's Day Descanso

Madrid Descanso - Feb 4, 1975

Ghost Bike - Paso del Norte

Ghost bikes are memorials found all around the world - where a biker has been killed in an accident. This is a bike from a very recent accident on Paso del Norte in Albuquerque. Incredibly, the biker was far off the roadway on a bike trail when a car broke through a barrier and killed this man on a bike. Follow this link for more information on the ghost bike project.

Oklahoma City Memorial

We visited the memorial two times - once at night and once during the day. The day we didn't go (April 19) was the 15th anniversary of the bombing. Kathy and I stayed in our hotel room all morning watching the memorial ceremonies on tv.

9:01 marks the last minute time was normal, on the other side of the memorial there is a 9:03 for the time things were changed. Everything else falls in between these two walls. Going at night the sounds and smells were really strong. We could hear people walking on the stones and smell the water in the middle of the memorial.


These are the chairs - one for every person killed - 9 rows for each floor of the building. The chair in the foreground is a chair memorializing Miss Baylee Almon - the baby that was in the arms of the firefighter that was shown so often during the days following the bombing.


These are the chairs across from across the water.


Memorials are still tied to fences that are outside the memorial. The fences were places people left memorials right after the bombing and they continue to hold tributes today.



The day before the memorial, this was one of the few chairs with a wreath. When we went back after the memorial there were wreathes and flowers on nearly every chair.

Descanso near Mountainair

Descansos south of Estancia

These are on Highway 41, almost right across from each other.

Descanso Road Side

This is a descanso on Highway 42 south of Willard. It is under a tree at a roadside table. It is really different that any other site I have visited. I am assuming it is made of materials that were left at the accident scene. Some descansos have accident remains. Those items always seem especially sad and sometimes a little creepy. But the construction of the cross isn't the most interesting thing about the memorial.....


As we were preparing to leave the side of the road, I was looking at the entire area, trying to imagine what might have happened. I looked up in to the tree above the descanso and saw this horse skull looking down at the memorial.



The skull is a really strange element, and I wondered for a moment if the descanso was some kind of joke and then I wondered if the horse was involved in the accident. The purple candles at the base of the cross look to have been burned within the last week. For some reason the candles make me think the memorial is genuine.

This is one of my favorite highways in the state, so I will be stopping by again.

Saturday's Snow at Descanso

Sunset Road in Albuquerque - between Central and Bridge

Descanso Detail

Two Decansos South of Madrid

These are two descansos within 50 feet of each other, about half-a-mile from Madrid.

Descanso - north of Madrid

This is a descanso just north of Madrid. It is far off the highway and down in a ravine. It is one of the most peaceful descanso sites I have ever visited. The ground near the tree is a sandy wash.


The picture below is an image of the descanso taken from near the highway. Around the year 2000, Highway 14 was "modernized" and many railings were added to create a safe highway. The changes to the highway were controversial at the time because the railings blocked views that were visible from the highway. There is now a railing on the highway in front of this descanso.

Descanso - north of Madrid

This descanso is about 50 feet down the road from the descanso above.

Descanson between Stanley and Moriarty

Descansos between Mountainair and Willard

El Tiradito

El Tiradito is a shrine in downtown Tucson. It is a public park for prayers and mourning. It is a beautiful historic space.

Rio Grande Gorge Views

Descanso on the northeast side of the bridge.


Signs on the ground. These signs were thrown over the Gorge Bridge. We couldn't read them from the bridge so we took pictures and zoomed in on them. They say "Dumpster for rest area use only violators will be prosecuted."