This week marks the end of my year in Santa Fe. When I decided to settle here, it wasn’t because of the city or the people. It was the land. When I first crossed the border from Texas to New Mexico back in January 2025, a voice in my head unmistakably told me I was home, even though I’d only visited New Mexico once before.
This land is much older than Santa Fe. Centuries before Europeans arrived, the Tewa-speaking Pueblo people called this land O’gha Po’oge, meaning “white shell water place.” The energies of O’gha Po’oge beckoned for me to stay. I’ve never experienced such open skies, with no trees or buildings blocking my view in any direction. As I pause on a hike and lay my hands on an Aspen Tree, I feel the deepest silence and stillness I’ve ever known. And when the wind blows, its ferocity feels attuned to my soul. Today, I celebrate my year with this land.
There is a great irony to my time here. Santa Fe sits at 7,000 feet of elevation. The elite athletes all live and train at altitude to boost their fitness. My fifteen-year racing career culminated in 2023. My last marathon was also my fastest. Throughout that career, I envied athletes who lived at a higher elevation. And then, two years after I gave up racing, I found myself at the altitude I had craved.
Early Lessons
When I first arrived, there was only one person I knew well here. That friend wasn’t even here – I spent my first three months house-sitting and cat-sitting for her while she was out of town.
During that time, I built a deep relationship with her five cats. I began to understand them, sensing their thoughts and needs in a way I’d never connected with a pet before, with the possible exception of my beloved Kohaku.
One night, early in my stay, I performed a ritual of my own design to connect with O’gha Po’oge. I used that name in the ritual, opening myself for a connection with the land, and listened for any message that might come through. I heard a single word in return.
Love.
I awoke in the middle of the night, with one cat in bed with me. Remembering my earlier connection with the land that evening, I energetically reached out to the cats, sending them love. To my delight, one by one, each cat gradually appeared, until all five were in bed with me. Something magical was afoot.
I was also surprised at how quickly I formed new human friendships. A friend of a friend was staying only ten minutes away, and we quickly formed a friendship that nourished me throughout my year. I discovered that one of the coaches from my initial coach education lived two miles away. I began to connect with neighbors. In hindsight, these new friendships come as no surprise. I am an incredibly relational person.
Those friendships opened me up to a whole host of new experiences. One friend took me to Canyon Road to explore art galleries. That led me to purchase art for the first time. Another friend introduced me to opera. My first opera was Wagner’s Die Walküre, a truly fitting introduction given my love of Norse mythology. I discovered mountain biking. I tried rock climbing. My relational nature, combined with my growing curiosity, opened up so many new worlds to explore.
And then there was the land. Atalaya Mountain. Mount Picacho, which one friend likes to call Mount Pikachu. Galisteo Basin Preserve. Sun Mountain and Moon Mountain. Hyde Park. My love of running has transformed into a love of hiking and being in nature. This land has so much to offer.
My photos don’t capture the land well, but here are a few anyway.
Adventure Road
Once I had decided to settle here, I started looking for a home to rent. I didn’t look far. The first home I looked at met all my requirements, and I felt a strong energetic connection with the owner. My thinking brain told me to keep looking to find the best home out there. My spirit told me otherwise. This had everything I needed. Why would I need to look for something more?
A few months later, I was preparing “The Aventura Guest Handbook” as part of my joshification process. As I drafted this document, I considered my address for the first time. Aventura Road. I had unwittingly moved to Adventure Road.
I discovered the Wailin’ Jennys as I moved into this home, and I listened to them so much that I was among their top 500 listeners on Apple Music in 2025. Their song “Heaven When We’re Home” has become the anthem of my time here. I particularly love this lyric:
They say if you stop looking, it doesn’t matter if you find it.
There’s a nudge from the Universe there. I had moved into a space of adventure, and without knowing it, I had already stopped looking.
The Birds
One of the first wildlife moments in my new home was a family of Quail sitting on the wall of my patio.
This was incredibly exciting for me. I’d never seen Quail before, and the way they speed across the ground captured my heart. Quail became one of the anchors of my new space. They were around for the summer, but I didn’t see them in the Fall. Then, when winter came, they returned, and I had as many as 20 Quail in my yard at times.
A handful stayed, and as spring arrived, one pair has been around every day. I’m convinced these are the parents from last summer, and they are nesting nearby. As my time here is winding down, they have made sure I know they are here. The male likes to call to his mate from my roof, so loud it sounds like he is in the house. I am not good at identifying bird calls, but I have the Scaled Quail call down at this stage.
The female has taken to standing outside my sliding glass door and staring in, sometimes for an hour at a time. She may be eyeing her reflection, but it doesn’t look like it. When I walk into the room, I sometimes see her come running up to the door. I feel like she’s saying, “I know you’re leaving, and I don’t like it!”
And then there are the Hummingbirds. Throughout the summer, they came so often that you only had to wait a few minutes to see one. They returned a few weeks ago. Recently, I went to change one of the feeders. As I lifted the feeder off its hook, I looked up and saw a Hummingbird flying above me, looking annoyed that I had taken their feeder. I stopped and stood still. Then, as I held the feeder, the Hummingbird landed and spent a full minute drinking their fill. They were three inches from my hand. Such a magical moment.
Ravens joined the ranks of my spirit animals when I visited Taos, and they have been ever-present in my neighborhood. I began putting whole peanuts in my tray feeder to attract them, but it didn’t work. Instead, a pair of Scrub Jays take them one at a time and bury them around the yard. I once found two Ravens eating the peanuts the Jays had buried, so they eventually got fed with the help of a middleman (or middlebird, I suppose). This past month, however, even Raven caved in and finally started visiting my feeder.
This Raven now shows up almost every day. On my final day in the home, two Ravens sat in my tree calling as I sat on my patio, blessing my journey.
I also had my first Chipmunk sighting on the patio this week. I had a hard time getting a photo because they were constantly in motion, until they suddenly struck a pose for me.
With all of this wildlife, it can be easy to forget Hawk, my first spirit animal. I have had my share of Hawk sightings here as well. Hawk has a way of reminding me with great showmanship that they are the OG spirit animal, and they did so again this week. As I drove to the community center to drop off my fob, a Hawk flew right in front of my car and landed in the tree next to me. Frantically, I rolled down the window and attempted to snap a photo before they flew away. I only got one picture, and I didn’t even know if it would be in focus, since my phone looks blurry when I wear my glasses. The result is my favorite photo I’ve ever taken.
The next day, another Hawk paid me a house call.
There has been a deeper, unexpected transformation through my connections with these animals. I never enjoyed killing an animal, and now, I simply won’t do it. I’ve perfected the art of catching flies and moths with a plastic bin and releasing them outside. I let spiders be. I even managed to catch a mouse in the house with a towel and release it outdoors unharmed.
And quite by accident, I became a vegetarian. At the beginning of the year, I tried being a pescatarian, and found I didn’t miss meat. Then, as I went through a limited diet to diagnose some minor health issues, I had to drop the fish as well. I quickly realized I didn’t need fish either. And so, a few months ago, I became a vegetarian. I thought it would be hard, but it hasn’t been. And it feels very attuned to my soul.
Welcome Josh, Enjoy Your Stay
Last year, I wrote about leading with love. This post was inspired in part by a simple note left on my door by a beautiful child. The note read “Welcome Josh, Enjoy Your Stay.”
The following week, I wrote about that note again, as I contemplated my nondual meditation practice.
As I reflect on my year with the lands of O’gha Po’oge, that note takes on another meaning. I see how deeply these lands welcomed me, and how my curiosity and openness led me to enjoy my stay deeply.
Thank you, O’gha Po’oge, and every being that has called this place home alongside me.
As my home has emptied this week, an echo has returned to the rooms. My clients have noticed that echo, but they are noticing something else. They are noticing the energy of my movement and my excitement for the next phase of my journey. A resonance in my voice and my spirit that they haven’t heard before. Perhaps that’s what happens when you stop filling every space.
What remains gets to ring true.
I see now that I was in training after all. I wasn’t training my body as an athlete, so much as I’ve been training my spirit. And O’gha Po’oge isn’t just at 7,000 feet of physical elevation. There is spiritual altitude here as well. This land was my coach, and my training had no formal plan.
Putting It Into Practice
When I trained for marathons, I followed a structured, deliberate plan. If this is how you train, consider shifting your perspective. What if training, learning, and growing are your way of life? Consider bringing curiosity and openness to every moment, and see what training the world brings you naturally.
I am an executive coach and consciousness coach with software executive roots in higher education and EdTech. I coach because I love helping others accelerate their growth as leaders and humans. I frequently write about #management, #leadership, #coaching, #neuroscience, and #arete.
If you would like to learn more, schedule time with me.