Holiday walk becomes lesson in avoiding distractions
My sunrise Christmas morning walk with my puppy Dante was peppered with the command, “Leave it,” over and over again as we navigated the detritus of the Canyon Road Farolito Walk.
Dante loves any trash he comes across, with a particular affinity for stray papers and face masks. This morning, he was distracted by the farolito bags lining the streets around Canyon Road along with the littered paper cups that held last night’s hot chocolate. He sank his teeth into many wet farolitos in an attempt to drag them along on our walk until I exchanged the paper bags for treats from my pocket.
We did not make the festivities of candlelit streets, piñon bonfires and caroling because the coronavirus had visited our house. My husband tested positive while I have remained negative. My husband is confined to home for few more days. I’m taking the puppy on walks at the edges of daylight when I know there will be few people out. I want to maintain an ample distance from anyone I may cross.
Yesterday we gifted our neighbor with two home COVID-19 tests in her mailbox so she could feel safe proceeding with her scaled-down family holiday plans. The elusive coronavirus test is to the Christmas of 2021 what the Cabbage Patch Kid was to the Christmas of 1983. When we received our boosters in November, we imagined this holiday season would look more like 2019 than 2020. We booked concert tickets. We scheduled a New Year’s trip to the Caribbean. We made plans with friends and family. Over the past few days, we canceled all plans. We returned to the quarantine life we all know too well.
I awoke on Christmas Eve to rain on the flat roof of our small adobe home. Its strumming sound soothed my holiday blues. I would certainly prefer snow in December, but any water from the sky is welcome in this parched New Mexico climate. A day by the kiva fireplace listening to jazz with a warm puppy in my lap and a book was an unexpected gift.
We roasted lamb despite my husband’s suppressed sense of smell and taste. We ate from the seldom-used china. We spoke of our gratitude for our cozy home that has provided us so much nourishment over the last year. We remarked that our Christmas was small, yet our lives remain full. We are fortunate beyond measure.
As I told Dante “Leave it” repeatedly on our morning walk, it felt like a mantra for pandemic times. Leave it. Don’t be distracted by the thing you think you want. Don’t be distracted by disappointment. Keep moving forward. Walk this path, smell the rain-soaked ground, observe the water marks remaining in the wet adobe, find your way back home.
When we approached the path along the Santa Fe River, Dante looked back under the bridge like he does every morning. There is a small homeless encampment on the other bank of what is generously named a river. The puppy always pulls at his leash and stares at the colorful sleeping bags under which he knows people are sleeping. Today I said a little blessing for the people sheltering under the bridge. May they stay warm, may they have a decent meal, may they have more lightness ahead than dark and, someday, may they find their way home.