Welcome to my Moonbox: a gathering of musings, learnings, and aspirations held (perhaps, sometimes only briefly) by the many expressions of me, Sarita.
From the hightop bar:
at the edge of the house, set against a large window, angled to the southwest, with evening sunlight glancing off the roundness of trees, and the shrub oak fractals, and the broken stones, and the soft piles of needles that I raked and left, the sun is cast over the wilting daisies and long grasses, cuts the gravel driveway into strips of shade, collapses into the grass on the other side, near the stones that were never stacked into a terrace, where the squirrels likely burrow, where the drainage ditch sits dry, shadowed, undulate, like the dirt road, framed by ponderosa and blue spruce, and at times, aspen, at times, telephone poles, or people walking with their dogs, maybe jogging, maybe biking, and the cars rattle in at various times of the day, and yet sometimes we hear nothing, we watch the crows scavenge for insects in the yard that isn't a yard but a forest, they scavenge in the forest that is their home, and the deer rest in the shade of the shed, chew their cud for hours while the sun rakes and leaves, as it wraps and warps, as it glances off roundness and stone-ness and brown needle in-between-ness, in through the window, all of this, at the edge of the house and from the hightop bar...
[Related: Moonbox Notes #15]
Life Updates: Last summer, I ended up grouping two months together as well, whoops. But, eyyy, we closed on a house last month! It’s 30 minutes northeast of Durango, and I can already feel myself healing from months of heightened stress. Although, we’ve still been busy…But, it’s fawn season and I’ve already seen a mama cross through the land with her two little ones. Plus, a mama squirrel with her fresh younglings. There’s also a crow family that nests nearby, and this morning they were heckling someone’s wandering, domestic cat. There is no shortage of non-human interactions here.
But, the house. The house will be a long-term project, as it needs work, and was left in a state of (at times, I feel, profound) uncleanliness. However, every day the house becomes more and more our home.
In my running life (feel free to skip this section if running isn’t interesting to you!): This year has been complicated. I have mentioned in previous notes an injury or two, but I don’t recall if I ever expanded upon them. Despite a very consistent winter of maintenance running and strength training (my best ever, tbh), I was admittedly doing a ton of road and treadmill running (more than is typical but to be expected given the context of snow). The running impact from the road is something that I do not experience during the rest of the year, and so I’ve been having issues with finding the right shoes to mitigate such seasonal transitions.
With the combination of this atypical body stress and the addition of speed work through the new-to-me Durango Running Club, I managed to strain one of my adductor muscles (inner thigh). This took about eight weeks to mitigate, wherein I stopped running for a full week, received deep-tissue massages (ouchie!!!), then built back up from 0 with the help of the elliptical at the rec center and the commitment to trails despite conditions to avoid the impacts of the road (the logic being that my body is well-adapted to trail and therefore can recover/heal/train better on trails — plus, I have my trail shoes dialed!).
My strategy for building straddled the line between moderate and aggressive, and I tried to ride that line smartly. But, I did overdo it in the elevation gain department, as many of Durango’s trails have generous vert. I began to develop shin splints. So I once again backed off from training enough to let my legs catch up. I added a lot more calf and shin specific strength to my routines. After a week or two of less training (but not 0), I began to turn up the dial again. Nonetheless, when one thing is injured, there is a ripple effect and compensation that happens. My old achilles injury from last year began to talk a little bit. I was feeling the effects of too-tight calves, and then forgetting about them once I finished a run (as symptoms would only hold for the first 20 minutes or so). The shin splints were gone, but now I had all the right ingredients for plantar fasciitis. Sure enough, I ended a long run early because I suddenly had significant pain in my heel.
I had to make a decision. I was obviously behind on training and my first race of the year was now a little over a month away. But, a lot can and does happen within one month. Patrick suggested I look into withdrawing from my race, and I did look, but something was telling me that I should at least try. I chose to commit to my own body’s ability to heal and to trust in my intuition as to when the injury transitioned from unusable to usable. I hit the restart button once again and built back up from 0. Four weeks later, I raced the Kendall Mountain Run 12 Miler and placed 13th female. I’m incredibly proud of my body, but the work is never really done. I’d say I’m 95% there with feeling injury-free. Some days are better than others, as is life, but the late Summer and Fall are when my biggest endeavors are anyway, so I do have some time. And gosh, with this being my first summer in the San Juanes, I am very excited to simply venture into the alpine.
Take note that I don’t have a coach and never have had one. I’ve learned about the body the hard way, and have become all the more proactive as I’ve gotten older. I learned a lot from the massage therapist I often saw in Boulder (but she retired and moved to the east coast), and of course other runners and body movers (or YouTube). The main factor that keeps me from hiring a coach is the money, but I do find value in their ability to mentor and offer knowledge. I feel pretty confident in my ability to listen to my body these days while balancing ambition. And I say balanc-“ing” because there never truly is stasis. Sometimes it becomes a pendulum and I have to slow it down. Sometimes it vibrates near the center. Sometimes I choose to not think about a spectrum at all and just do what feels good or okay or I do what CarlosTheRunner calls, “sexy pace” (care-free slow running — which is, the best). If you have to be a runner, then at least be one who enjoys sexy pace! 😉
La Vida Mundial:
With all the house shenanigans (like not having internet for 2 weeks) and hot weather, I’ve been a little off-track in keeping tabs or a pulse or an ear or an eye or most of my brain on things, but:
Indigenous human, academic, CEO, and meme King Dr. Len Necefer now has a newsletter on Substack
The Supreme Court is, unsurprisingly, full of jackasses: Keeps Navajo Nation Waiting for Water
Artist’s to watch:
Nicholas Galanin | He/Him | Multi-disciplinary artist who expands the intersections of culture, knowledge, technology, and indigenous sovereignty. Galanin Bio: here. Current exhibition: Santa Fe.
Michelle Lin | She/They | Poet, artist, and cultural worker who seeks to dismantle gatekeeping and tokenization, who has published work examining the inheritance of stories and trauma, and who is an advocate for LGBTQ+ artists of color. Book: A House Made of Water (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017).
Local face-palm news: New structure near Durango Mall looks to be another car wash
HBD to all June/July birthdays!
Recent Top Pick Reads:
+ “The rise of the restoration economy: Filling the economic void left by the extraction economy by healing the land,” by Jonathan Thompson, High Country News, July 21, 2022. A brief, thoughtful look into possible extraction industry transitions within the context of a complicated era of climate change, job demand, and land desecration.
+ “Unraveling,” Terry Tempest Williams, Emergence Magazine, May 12, 2022. Williams contemplates what it means to unravel in the context of the pandemic, of climate change, of planetary health, and how we can also reemerge and recreate from all that the unraveling has revealed to us.
+ “A Pointed Angle,” by Meera Subramanian, Orion Magazine, Online Essays, August 2022. Subramanian looks back into time contemplating her ancestor who surveyed what would became Texas, his letters, and the true historical context of colonization, and how such small surveying objects, like the compass, changed (and stole) everything.
Books/Mags in progress:
+ Campfire Stories Volume II, Anthology
Recent Listens/Watchings:
+ “Dancing Story of Love and Grief,” Film by William Armstrong, Text by Hannah Aizenman, The New Yorker Documentary, June 19, 2022. A short documentary about choreographer Paul Lightfoot and his use of dance to say goodbye to his late father. But since this endeavor took place during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Paul directed dancer Sebastian Haynes entirely through Zoom.
+ “Kriste Peoples: Mediation, Interconnectedness, & Room for Us All,” You Are A Big Deal Podcast with Beccay Jay, Episode 24, April 1, 2023. Kriste and Becca discuss motivations, new narratives, wellness, and the dismantling of old stories. “A practice of mindfulness and meditation allows me to have my emotions so my emotions don’t have me” – Kriste Peoples.
+ “Mountain Lion vs. Dog Tracks: How to Tell Them Apart,” Beartracker Nature Films, Kim A. Cabrera, YouTube, January 30, 2017. A great info-video that explains everything very clearly.
+ “Every Step Forward | Cocodona 250 Ultrarunning Documentary,” Sally McRae Channel, YouTube, Film by Drew B Darby and Tyler McCain, May 31, 2023. Sally McRae finishes the Cocodona 250 but not without intense physical and mental trial (like, the most insane blisters I have ever seen).
Writing/Projects: (updates are highlighted)
+The hybrid essay I wrote in 2021, “Chuckwalla,” still needs some major revision before I consider submitting again. I’ve begun another research/writing phase as well.
+I currently have one general submission in the ether. I’ve submitted a previously-published essay to an essay contest (where this is allowed). The purse is $3k! The winner and runners-up will be announced in October.
+I’ve begun a new short fiction piece with a temporary title of, “How I Came To Be.”
+My online writing course with Orion Magazine, “Writing Resilience through Our Relationship with Wildness,” has been postponed until September 2023 due to the instructor having a family emergency.
+I have a Science Fiction novella that I’ve been slowly working on since 2017.
MISC/Brags:
- Patrick and I celebrated 7 years of marriage this month (July 12th)! Awwww.
Thanks for tuning in to Sarita’s Moonbox.
Happy Summer!
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