Chosen Places: Red Rock Country, New Mexico

Holly Wielkoszewski takes us to rural New Mexico.

I got locked into New Mexico’s gravitational pull when I started dating Ben. I would follow him to Silver City to watch him race Tour of the Gila, and then I would follow him further to Taos to visit his cousins. New Mexico as a place rejects me. There is something deep in my biology that does not like it there, despite how beautiful, enchanting, and ethereal every part of it continues to be.

Which is why when Holly Wielkoszewski offered to take us there via photos, I said yes. It’s a magical place worth knowing more about, even if that magic seems to battle with my own. Click through to see the full post.

Holly, take us away.

Where have you lived so far?

The answer to this feels like it might be where haven’t I lived? As of now, I count eight states and five countries that I’ve called home, although depending on your definition of “lived” and how much time it requires in a certain place, that count could go up considerably. For the purposes of this article, I’m considering anywhere I’ve spent three months or more.

The idea of home has always been a malleable one for me: I’ve had a wanderlust in my blood for as long as I can remember, and while I appreciate the comforts of a place to call my own, I’ve also always felt that wherever I am with my husband, that’s home. The world is so big, and there are so many places to see. I’m now in the midst of crafting a life that allows me to straddle both concepts of home: a fixed place and a variable one.

But first—where I’ve been before! I can broadly break my lived places so far into three chunks: my childhood, my time in government/as a military spouse, and my off-grid/self-employed chapter, which I’m in right now.