Cenizo Journal Fall 2019 | Page 7

C enizo Not es by Carolyn Brown Zniewski, Publisher and Danielle Gallo, Editor-in-Chief love watching the sunsets from my porch at this time of year. The days are per- fect for working at out- door projects that have been put on hold for the rush of late summer and getting ready for the school year. The weather is cool even in the mid- afternoon, and it stays light fairly late. You can clean out the remains of the garden, maybe even find a few late vegetables before mulching the beds. Perhaps do some fence repair where the goats pushed their way through, or the dog knocked it down chasing a rabbit. It is a good time to put in a few fruit trees or perhaps a love- ly pecan. Just keep them well watered and it will give the roots a good start before they start growing taller in the spring. Big Bend is a place that grows good roots in people, too. I hear from folks so many times that they grew up here and moved away, only to come back. Others mention coming for a visit and staying for years, like I did. This is not a place you only visit once. This is country for people and families of all styles. If you are look- ing for fame and fortune you will be looking elsewhere, but if you are looking for the things that really matter: the land, the river, people and wildlife, beautiful sunrises and sunsets and the incredible glory of the starry night, then Big Bend is a place to be. We try to share a little cor- ner of that world here in the Cenizo. Please sit back, watch the sun spread out over the moun- tains, watch the stars come out. Then turn on the light and read a bedtime story or two. We say a fond goodbye to our long time writer, Bill Smith. He has been a contributor since the very early days. As of his final story in this issue, he is retiring. Thanks for all your excellent work, Bill! I love the geology of the Big Bend. I love to explore all the uplifts, ash flows, lime- stone reefs, cutouts; the folded ridges of caballo novaculite arching the hills south of Marathon; the beds of crinoids like stacks of pesos, frozen in the crumbling Permian sea bed, nestled in piles of deep purple fluorite crystals left behind from the old mine shipping days. What I love about the geology of the Big Bend has less to do with acquiring these treas- ures than it has to do with the way I feel while I’m searching for them. The quiet is so vast and absolute that it has its own mass, and weighs on the eardrums with a strange pressure. The slow walking through the desert brush, the focused gaze that catches and discards each stone in turn, engender a peacefulness I rarely find else- where. Autumn is the time to go rock hunting out here, when the quality of light is perfect, and even the middle of the day is tolerable to be out in the sun. When I’m out looking at the stones, I can’t help but remember how puny is the span of human history. The time it takes for a creature to be born, live, die, and turn to stone is like a single inhalation for the Earth in her slow evo- lution. This forced perspective of geologic time makes my worries about the now vanish like a mist—fracking wells in Presidio county, mass shootings in my old stomping grounds, political chicaneries, artificial borders between nations and peoples, can arise and vanish in a blur that passes utterly unnoticed by the stones. I hold those stones like a talisman, believing in the passage of time with all my might, unable to really grasp it. I BIGGEST SELECTION West of the Pecos Open 10am to 9pm Mon - Sat 432.837.7476 www.twinpeaksliquors.com [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] WEB MANAGER Maya Brown DESIGN/PRODUCTION Wendy Lynn Wright ADvERTISING EDITOR Tana Lee [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Ave C & N 3rd • Marathon, TX [email protected] www.evesgarden.org Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner ® Movement Intelligence Trainer/Teacher Nationally Certified Massage Therapist TX License # MT121615 Call or text to schedule appointments • Gift certificates available [email protected] Daniela C. Lara 208 W Ave. E #101, Alpine • 832-314-8103 Certified Public Accountant 1701 W Highway 90 • Alpine [phone] • Cell: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [email protected] S TART TO F INISH C ONSTRUCTION We do it all! C ENIZO JO URN AL S TA F F ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rani Birchfield 432.386.4165 BIG ________________________________________ BEND FELDENKRAIS P.O. Box 257, Marathon, Texas 79842 www.cenizojournal.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Danielle Gallo Bed and Breakfast 605 E Holland Ave • Alpine Published by Cenizo Journal LLC PUBLISHER Carolyn Brown Zniewski Eve’s Garden Concrete to cabinets, welding and all types of fencing 45 years of experience Jimmy Counts, Owner [email protected] 325-340-0175 Cenizo Fourth Quarter 2019 7