A Community Commentary of Thank You by Tanja Burns

Good Morning One & All,
Thank you,

-Thank you the TBDC, lead by Tina Cordova, our ageless, intergenerational, fearless extraordinary leader, and to Mildred Gordan, 97 years & Stephanie DuBois 78 years, and Bob and countless others, who continue to mentor us rag tags, by invisibly back seat driving & coaching us from places we barely see, know, or comprehend, carefully impacting us each, one and all:

... the vision you giants have is ever more spectacular this morning. HB 4426 is on the set table, at the House in DC, and I cannot begin to encapsulate the story of the table setting, for which I am so very grateful, and much of which can be found at trinitydownwinders.com, and at the same time, there's a great deal to appreciate here locally, too.

I'm so thankful and in awe of emergent visions, and I feel grateful to be around, to be even adjacent to, and included in any part of any of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Ms Gordan, you served us steadfastly, leading up to, and during, and throughout, and ever since the Pontiac KKK bus burnings. Ms DuBois, you became your Father's child of compassionate, resilient, self-sacrificing work, after he pulled those gone, and those in the process of dying less quickly, and some who were dying much, much more slowly, from the devastation of the 1945 USA atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and you've chosen a life of service, with the downwinders, here as home. You both, Ms Gordan and Ms DuBois, came and stayed, living your lives with bountiful generosity, of not just spirit, but of actions, and candor, and humility, second to none. And you remind us to have fun too, and to not only mourn together, learn and respect each other's cultures together, but that we deserve also to laugh, and have fun together. And Tina and the TBDC keep returning, and bringing back to community the very finest and best, and taking forth same.

I thank you four all, and those with you too, for the light you share and the intertwining legacies you seamlessly provide; you give of the net that appears and catches others, when they leap.

-Thank you to the Alamogordo School Board for serving, serving, serving, and for supporting educational excellence in progress, by renewing the contract for Pam Renteria, as Superintendent. To have such a person in the lead, who truly believes in, and acts with diversity inclusivity in mind, is so appreciated, and your knowledge that she will run her leg well, honorably and with the baton ready to pass in the passing zone, is well appreciated.

-Thank you Superintendent Pam Renteria, for your exemplary, long term service, using your vast, educator experience at all levels over the years, and now too; it's a rare thing of extraordinary privilege, to have one as remarkable as yourself, remaining inhouse, serving us locally, once you've made the steep climb to the responsibility and endless duties of superintendent. We are so fortunate to benefit from your knowledgeable, experienced, motivated and insightful leadership, as you keep raising the bar, for all who will come later.

-Thank you to Mayor Margie Trujillo, and the Tularosa Village Trustees, and everyone in the village and its wider community, and those with the village still dear to their hearts, for coming together, beyond great odds, and passing a unanimous proclamation of support for the current RECA amendments, as already passed by the USA Senate, July 2023: the NDAA passes every time ~ the table is set. Thank you to all those who have sacrificed, unwillingly, unknowingly and willingly, and keep sacrificing, and working with such passion, diligence and care. Thank you for exemplifying what it is to find togetherness, and to have positioned the Village of Tularosa to make this proclamation, last evening, on the 78 year, for the long overdue RECA amendments, which can finally begin to address and heal our incredible Land of Enchantment, place of perfect friendships, among united cultures. And I thank all those serving currently, including civically and in the House, who support RECA and hope that they are ready, willing and able to recognize the enormity of this moment of opportunity, and seize it, and bring all others along.

I leave you with a token of rhyme this morning, about timing, tenacity and bits and pieced of peace; I'm a lover of puns, reflecting and pondering upon double meanings, of reading between the lines, of analogies, metaphors and similes, of ambiguousness and art, of grappling to know things that I barely am equipped to understand any of, and the thrill of still being around, to learn to know myself a little better every day. I'm just now learning a small bit, about how to help, to be "pit-crew" in the grand race of life, and how to see into the analog "time piece" of peace, of which we are all a part. I keep learning that I don't know much. But I do understand that gems and jewels, can have shiny, useful facets, and that the more precise watches are often worn by, or used by, the more precise watchers. GPS devices and all things digital, they can help us, yet it's the application of understanding, of the intricacies of how matter itself works, which brings us to the innovations that humanity accrues, gaining exquisitely more capacity for good. So this morning, I leave off, with a thank you to all those boosting my, and each other's, rudimentary understandings of how we each are, both "pit-crew", and also bits and pieces, of the watch jewels, and their facets, as we live, truly coming alive, and in, this time peace piece.
for
2023
Sat. Nov 18th
time piece peace
watch jewels & jewel bearings

when the rubber hits the road
that's when the driver hits the mode
of finding the cruise zone in each situation,
and overcoming automaticity & lack of imagination
for the other situations, very varied, unexpected and foreseen,
which take the driver through old and new landscapes, on paths we've all never been:
: along the untrodden path the ride is steady, long and winding;
both the challenge and the joy is noticing what's there for the finding,
be it in the sphere of do-able, or seemingly unrelated, out of reach & ridiculous,
the driver has to deal with it all, with actions safe, sane and meticulous,
no knocking out the guardrails, or failing to break, pause, accelerate, or do the driving or the refuels,
and the pit-crew stays careful, quietly, constantly on hand; they are, as classic bits, of analog-time-piece jewels

jewel bearing and watch jewels
peace time piece
for Nov 18th 2023

Best wishes , and hope to see you, and friends, and family at the Lady of the Mountain Run on Saturday morning ! Thank you all, and Happy Thanksgiving !

- Tanja Burns