THE ADOBE INN

Diane and PQ, 2014

Yesterday we went to lunch with our friend Diane. She moved away from Taos perhaps ten years ago, I’m not sure of the exact time, but date doesn’t matter. It was the end of an era. Diane owned the Adobe Inn and it was without doubt in anyone’s mind a magical place. It is also the place where I met the Suazo family and their eldest son Pba-quen-nee-e (PQ) Blue Spruce Standing Deer in English. I’ve told the story of how I met Diane and her Inn in another Blog. Typically it was very woo woo.

From Left,(Brother) Nathaniel, (Dad) Joe J., PQ and (Mom) Frances

When I woke this morning, the weather was beautiful and spring was full on in Taos, at least for now. Nevertheless, I felt intensely sad and nostalgic. Then I realized that it was homesickness. A barrier of time was separating me like a barbed wire fence from that Taos that I first recognized as my spiritual home and from the many amazing people and experiences that wandered through the enchantment and sometimes dis-enchantment of the Adobe Inn.  

It has occurred to me more than once that the spirit of Mabel Dodge Lujan and her Taos Pueblo husband, Tony was still alive and picked receptive subjects as tools to carry on. The play was bigger than the actors were. Joe J. and Frances Suazo had a direct line to the Big House, as Joe J. was Tony Lujan’s adopted grandson and it was natural to follow a path already trod. 

Nathaniel,PQ, Frances, PQ's son Jerrick, Dad

We are now old folks and both PQ and Diane have experienced some difficult physical challenges in recent years. This could be attributed to growing old and even pay back for a wild youth in PQ’s case, but I don’t think so. Medicine magic isn’t always pleasant, but it may have an awesome distilling agenda of its own. Few of us who hung around the Adobe Inn had the wisdom to know why we were there, and

The Bad Boy (PQ)

even if we thought we knew, our tragi-comic naivety flew up and hit us in the face like the handle of a stepped on rake. In other words, egos got an ass kicking out of the Inn and out of Taos. But, that was seldom the end of the story. Many of us stayed, sometimes because we didn’t have the means to leave and even those who didn’t stay often hovered in the aura of Taos for years, coming back every so often to get another dose. In other words, the Adobe Inn was a portal to the potent medicine of Taos.

Diane and Marti, 2014

The Inn itself was deceptively tucked away on Quesnel Street, and while only a block from the old plaza few people saw it unless their personal karma made reservations for them at the Inn. In some cases, it was the first place in Taos they stayed, an auspicious sign. At the time that my ex-husband and I arrived in Taos, Diane was in love with PQ and a was a virtual member of the Suazo family. PQ himself was living with another girlfriend in California. Yes, he was quite a player in those days, certainly not to be trusted with your heart. He came back from California for a family crisis and the first time we saw each other we knew something irrepressible and life changing had transpired. 

Diane, Dad, Mom and me, Gathering of Nations, '93

Yesterday afternoon we had a great time looking through old photos that Diane pulled out of storage recently.  The memories attached to the images came alluringly back to life. That version of Taos was something needed to bring some life back to this dry, windy seemingly interminable winter drabness that I’ve come to accept as the real thing. Well, perhaps Taos is resting from all the action of the previous 20 plus years.  

I want to thank every one of you who were a part of the Adobe Inn experience even if for a one time stay and even if you were one of the traumatic lessons. The Mountain and its spirit striped us down to the core leaving only bones and memories. But, that’s what life is made of. There is more than one “Ark of the Covenant,” upon which no one should look lest he/she be turned to ashes and that is the nature of the Taos spirit. May the ashes of the Adobe Inn be scattered to a world that needs such enrichment. Ah Men!