Path to Plentitude

Last Saturday I went to a networking meeting for women entrepreneurs in Santa Fe and met a wonderful group of women.  I sensed a few kindred spirits in the group and had the chance to visit one of them in her radically simple home today - a unique home she designed & constructed herself.  It's a portable structure, made of canvas and at less than 200 sq feet, the PleniSphere is a special place and it's creator, Anodata Pyaga, is a special person.

When I met Anodata last weekend and found out about her creation & that she only lived about 1/2 mile from my house, I knew I had to visit her during one of her open house days and get a first hand look at her little living space under the domed canvas roof.  

As I walked along the trail behind Frenchy's Field to cross the Santa Fe River to get to her place, I spotted the smaller of the two Plenisphere's she has set up in her back yard in the distance.

Then I crossed over the footbridge that spans the river and headed down the trail toward her home and became even more excited to step inside one of her magical dwellings.  Being able to visit this type of structure only a few hundred feet from my own new home is truly one of the enchanting aspects of living in The City Different.  I love that this city seems to attract creative people like Anodata and her "spheres of plenitude".

The structure itself is elegant and welcoming in person as it appeared to be in the photos I saw on her website.  There was a lovely breeze wafting through the openings for the windows & doors as I sat and chatted with its designer this morning.  For such a small space, I was happy to see all of the ways in which she had maximized space by choosing furniture & making items that serve more than one purpose like the footstool that also serves as a desk and discretely conceals a composting toilet.  It was really interesting to talk to someone else who has made a conscious decision to radically simplify their life and see first hand the way she has embraced this way of life and taken it even further than I have by creating a dwelling that embodies the principles of living "sustainably in abundance and luxury".  I can only hope that my own journey toward Radical Simplicity continues to lead me down other such Paths of Plentitude.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow in Santa Fe

My friend here in Santa Fe was gracious enough to let me stay in her house for a couple weeks while I was looking for a place to live.  She and her husband went with me to scout out a few places and after seeing a couple of "shit-holes" (her husband's honest opinion) and a couple of lovely places, I choose a place on a street called Agua Fria.  I knew it was the place for me the minute I saw the mailbox - it had me with "om".  

The house itself was quite a mess when I first saw it because three 2o-something, male musicians had been living here and I had to look past the dirty dishes in the sink and the messy piles of their stuff.  I loved the owners though & could tell they loved this house.  They had lived here for 6 years themselves and I could still feel their positive energy all over the place.  They had installed a whole house, water filtration system and commercial grade appliances in the kitchen, but they kept the 1950s, turquoise double oven & matching gas range.  I love that my landlord is looking for a part to fix the oven.  He'll replace it if he has to, but I adore him for trying to keep these golden oldies. 

The original part of the house was built in 1920 and was apparently the General Store for the Village of Agua Fria at that time.  The walls are real adobe and the living room has the original vigas and the wooden slats on the ceiling above them are painted a lovely shade of dark turquoise.  The kitchen counters are a beautiful blue ceramic tile and with a little scrubbing of glass ceiling fixtures, the gentle glow of electric light now reflects nicely off the white-washed adobe walls.   I've also been discovering little critters that my landlords left behind in the nichos and even found a little metal frog sitting on top of an electrical box outside the kitchen the other day.

Another reason I chose the house is because it sits on 1/3 of an acre and is completely walled in making it a wonderful yard for my dog, Ginger, to explore.  There are 3 old growth apple trees, which my juicer will love, and a magic circle of stones just waiting to be reawakened from under the overgrown grasses.  My bedroom is on the East side of the house so I get to the lovely morning sun & have a french door that opens out to the back yard and one of the apple trees and a bench swing under a pergola.  This has become a favorite place to soak up the morning sun or gaze at the starlit sky.  It is a wonderful secret garden.   My landlords even told me that there are crystals buried all around the yard - just another reason on my long list of loves for this place I now call home. 

 

I also have a great roommate, who's a natural redhead like me - talk about adding some magic to this place!!  She actually rented the master bedroom before I met her, but I couldn't have chosen a better roommate if I'd picked her myself.  She's a 30 year old grad student studying Art Therapy & loves my dog almost as much as I do - she even left the light on for her the other night when I was out late - she left the porch light on for me too, but her note just mentioned the light for Ginger :-). 

So there you have it.  My new home has embraced me and there's plenty of room for all of my friends who said they were coming to visit me her in Santa Fe.  Come on down to the Land of Enchantment and my enchanted little house on Agua Fria.

What I Left Behind

As I radically simplified my life, there were just a few things that I knew I wouldn't be taking with me.  Most of the items where mementos from my son's childhood.  

Over the years I stored his memories in a couple of plastic totes & a couple of hanging files in my file cabinet.  When I started this process, I went through everything again and got rid of a few more things so that I could fit everything into one large tote.  Inside that tote now are ALL of his baby clothes, his favorite books - including "Goodnight Moon" & "The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Odd Tales", his artwork, school papers & other childhood mementos. 

I also saved a smaller tote that of just Legos.  I think I kept this tote because it was such a good little storage piece for him when he was little - big enough to hold all of them, but small enough for him to carry around.  The lid also locks in place on 2 sides and the handles fold down. He always used the lid as a building surface and despite all of the constant use, it is still in perfect condition.  His children may never play with his Legos, but I spent way to much time researching Lego containers during his childhood to let this one go easily.

The other 2 items will probably end up in my home again at some point.  I could have made them fit in my car, but didn't want to take the chance of breaking them.  The rocking chair was my father's when he was a baby - the photo below shows him, me & my son in the chair over the course of 50 years.  My Grandparent's wedding portrait has domed glass on it and I was afraid it would get broken in my tightly packed car during my drive down to Santa Fe.

For now these few items are safe in a storage space under the stairs in my son's house.