I just returned from 3 days in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico visiting my mentor who is also one of the best friends I’ve ever had. From the moment I arrived to the moment I left I just felt so happy to be there and be with her, and the afterglow is still strong. The intense dry 90 degree heat felt so great, the friendly people cheered my spirits and time with my mentor nourished my whole being.
A few weeks back I wrote Meeting My Mentor, the Early Years as a part of 
Bev and me now
Beverley Magennis has had a prolific and successful career as a mosaic and ceramic artist and more recently as a fiction author (The Alibi, and Desplazado). She’s always been such an important figure my life throughout the 30 years we’ve known each other from my early years in college to the present day. She is my parent’s age and h er example of walking in this world as a creative human has always spoken directly to my core personally and professionally. Each time I spend time with her I remember myself more fully and it’s incredibly life-giving.
Her most famous project is “the Tile House” in Albuquerque where her daughter Erin Magennis and husband Kyle now live and run their tile mosaic and stained glass studio ABQ Glass.
Erin and I in front of Bev's Tile House
Kyle at work in their glass and tile mosaic studio
New Mexico is such a mix of cultures and landscapes that it almost feels like another country. I just love how there’s raw exposed earth everywhere, and the sky wows me all day long with clouds piled high within an expanse of blue. The people are noticeably happy and friendly and I love all of the adobe buildings.
We went for walks, went to museums in Santa Fe, ate delicious food, looked at artworks from some of the plentiful local talent but mostly what we did was to chat and talk and laugh and chat some more.
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It’s been 6 years since I’ve seen her and I am struck at how she is still blazing the trail in a way that speaks so personally to me. I’ve always marveled at her resilience and capacity to embrace life in all its forms as best she could. Pleasing others hasn’t been a priority although caring about them has!
Of course she welcomes all of the “goods” in life as we all do but when suffering comes around she doesn’t avoid it or see it as a problem but rather as something else to experience. Somehow she has embraced all that her life has to offer without entitlement and without being beaten down by it including recovering from 2 cancers - one was stage 3C ovarian cancer - 3 marriages, raised a daughter as an artist and single mother while teaching full-time, making art and working as a cocktail waitress. And each experience has refined her sensitivity and opened her heart more and more rather than making her tough, cynical or flippant.
Bev has this huge (literally 100s and 100s) collection of salt and pepper shakers
During this visit we were remembering that summer when I made mosaics with her and a counseling group that she had joined at the time. It used precepts called “Attitudinal Healing” that had a lot of impact in her life and wound up affecting me at the time as well. Those precepts inspired a continuous thread of conversation between us about what they really meant and what each looked like in the nitty gritty moments of life.
On this trip we were able to remember a few of these precepts, the ones that were the most powerful for us over the years:
- We are all students and teachers to each other
- The essence of our being is love
- Health is inner peace, healing is letting go of fear
- Giving and receiving are the same
- Now is the only time there is and each instant is for giving
- We can become love finders rather than fault-finders
- We can always perceive others as either loving or fearful which is giving a call out for love
These may seem commonplace now in 2018 - which is a positive indicator for our contemporary times - but back in 1988 each one was revolutionary and gave us permission to open our hearts in a way that contradicted the existing pinched and limited norms of the time. I know for me, these ideas really shifted my view of human beings and enabled me to walk through life with fewer walls between myself and other people.
Although I’m busier than any human should be right now, I’m so glad I took the time to take this trip. New Mexico is such an amazing place and immediately and effectively transported me out of the whirring details of my life. I didn’t realize how much I needed this and will try to make it back each year if I can, both to see my friend and to experience this extraordinary place.
Thank you for supporting my blog which is an integral component of my creative life! Now that I'm back to my studio, I'll post in the next few days with an update to the endless Pool House Mosaic project.*