Reflections

by Katie Butler Johnson

We’re on the cusp of 2026!

Now’s the time to make sure all your important appointments and activities are inked in on your 2026 calendar. And, while you’re at it, how about carving out “down” time scattered over the year just to allow for something that might spontaneously pop up?

In the summer of 1990, Husband and I did just that. We set aside two weeks and let our whims direct where we went and dictate what we did.

While our youngest was at summer camp in Northern New Mexico, we toured the West. Husband loved it because, without an itinerary and with no cell phones at that time, he wasn’t dragged back into work issues.

After several peaceful weeks of wondering, we landed in Taos to await the end of our son’s camp session. We’d never been to Taos before and found it a surprising counterbalance to Dallas. Dallas is prairie; Taos is mountains. Dallas is action; Taos is reflection. Dallas if fancy shoes and designer purses; Taos is backpacks and Birkenstocks.

We felt at home in the area and thought, whimsically, why not look for a fixer-upper here? We’d never had a house we didn’t tweak in some way. And Husband’s artist sister lived in Taos and might be agreeable watching over it when we were back in Texas. So, we began to, sort of, look out for a place somewhere within Northern New Mexico’s Enchanted Circle.

On a dirt road in Taos, just behind the Kochina Lodge, we found it - a quirky faux adobe. It called out to us. The For Sale Sign staked out front had been there long enough to bleach out in the high desert sun. I jotted down the realtor’s phone number and arranged a walk-through.

The owner was 85, same age I’m today. She’d been widowed and moved to Seattle to be closer to her daughter. Her house was put on the market. But, with the ton of work it needed, it hadn’t sold. It had been rented out awaiting someone, anyone, to see its potential. We did! We snapped it up BECAUSE it needed help and would be an interesting project to chip away at over time and because we could get it for a song.

We spent many happy vacations working on that house. High on the fix it list was a cracked sewer line. We outsourced that fix to the plumbing professionals. The leaky line had fertilized an apple tree whose roots forged their way through the crack. As a result, the tree had grown leagues taller than its twin planted a distance from that crack.

Aside from help with re-stuccoing, Husband tackled all the repair work over the years - the carpentry, the replacement of rotted beams and drafty windows, installing a wood floor, rebuilding the exterior stairs and even building custom furniture to fit odd spaces. He was the architect and foreman. I was #1 flunky.

If we hadn’t scheduled time for following our whims that summer, we never would have found our Taos home which is almost like a part of our family today. She’s given us priceless memories of times together in front of her Kiva fireplace, of watching the seasons change on Mount Taos through the sliding glass door, of seeing prairie dogs pop up from their dens on Pueblo land just behind the house, of cataloguing the species of birds visiting the bird feeders, and the blissful peace of just resting within her walls with a good book in hand.

Oh, there is still more that she needs fixed. But, as they say in Taos, “it will all happen in Taos’ time.”

When my older daughter pressed me for where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do for my 85th birthday, I jumped at the possibility of having the immediate family join me in Taos. That fixer-upper is my happy place. Daughter said she’d make it happen. And she did!

Seventeen of us were there for about 4 days. Daughter coordinated the planning, cooking and cleanup. Flight reservations were made for those not driving and hotel Reservations for those not staying at the adobe which is too small to sleep everyone. ( I took one of those reservations myself so I could retreat from my tribe and quietly recharge when needed.). And as matriarch, I got to bask in a Queenly dose of attention. What’s not to love about that??

Our Taos house, that long- range project we unexpectantly stumbled upon in 1990, well it’s definitely not finished yet, nor will it ever be. You see - our faux adobe will always be in the process of needing something fixed. It’s absolutely perfectly imperfect - just like we all are.