Meditations
on the walking trails at the Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico
Norman Beaupré visited
the Ghost Ranch twice once in 1989 and then in 1995. The Ghost Ranch
is located in northern New Mexico and is constituted of some 21,000
acres of land rich in history and archeology. The Ghost Ranch Conference
Center functions as a national adult study center and as a steward
the Northern New Mexico environment. The Native Americans such as,
the Pueblos, the Jicarilla-Apache, the Navajo, and the Hispanic community
as well as other cultures are all part of the Ghost Ranch neighboring
land inhabitants.
The author was introduced
to the area by his friend former UNE undergraduate Dean, Michael Morris,
to whom he dedicated this work dealing with esthetics and creativity.
The main catalyst for Beaupré was the 62 color photos that
he himself took on the trails at the Ghost Ranch. Subsequently when
he got home he decided to put down in writing his thoughts on each
and every photo since he wanted to recapture the creative essence
of his journey on the three trails: the Chimney Rock, the Kitchen
Mesa, the Box Canyon trails.
This is essentially a book
of reflections on particular ways of seeing things on the three walking
trails at the Ghost Ranch. This very popular site is often referred
to as Georgia O'Keefe country. The three main components are deadwood,
rocks, and desert flowers. A photo that becomes the catalyst for creative
reflection accompanies each component text.
As the author points out,
walking trails, holistically speaking, are the occasions for physical
exercise, emotional release, esthetic activity, intellectual operation,
and spiritual excursion. The author uses his own experiences with
fine arts and his teaching of the humanities to delve into poetic
excursions of the without and the within. He employs the word "soul"
to mean the creative power in all of us, potential as well as active.
Reader participants in
this venture of the walking trails are invited to follow the author
at every step of the way in order to discover their own creative soul
and thereby learn to seek and fathom the within of things.
ISBN: 978-159526-798-6
Paperback
Format: 5.5 x 8.5 in - 144 pages
Language: English
Published by Llumina
Press.
Also available at Amazon.com.
