The Magic of Cahokia: A Journey of Wishes, Change, and Unexpected Blessings
“You need to send your wish up to another dimension like you did the last time, so we have to figure out a place you can go to do that,” she told me. This was my friend Judie encouraging me to make a special wish that our Santa Fe house would sell quickly. The last time we had done this was fourteen years ago, when we were selling our home in St. Louis so we could move to Santa Fe. At that time, when she heard we were living in St. Louis, Judie knew instantly where we needed to go: Cahokia Mounds World Heritage and State Historic Site just across the river from the famous St. Louis Arch. It’s an important archeological site of Native American Mississippian culture dating back to before the 12th century and is billed as the largest pre-Columbian site north of Mexico. The place is actually unassuming, with grass covered hills or “mounds” dotting the area and an informative visitor center. Over the years, various excavations have unearthed examples of pottery and burial remains. It wasn’t difficult to get there, so we went for a visit and quickly figured out where to send off our wish. Much to our delight and astonishment, we received an offer on the St. Louis house a short time after our visit.
This time around there wasn’t such an obvious solution. We had moved to Santa Fe and made our home here in northern New Mexico. Where would we find another dimension? I knew Judie would be racking her brain to figure this out because I certainly didn’t have a clue! I counted on her. Sure enough, she came up with an idea: there would be a hot air balloon launch about an hour from Santa Fe at a historic site. All I had to do was write my wish on some biodegradable surface and find a balloonist willing to take my wish aloft and release it into the air. That sounded reasonable, sort of. I’m not one to talk to anybody and everybody like she is, but I thought I could do it. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate, the balloons didn’t fly, and we decided not to make the drive.
I thought of another plan, but I didn’t tell Judie. It didn’t really involve another dimension, but it was a solution that works for Jews at the new year. In the spirit of Tashlich, instead of casting our sins away, we could cast our wish into a natural body of water. Lucky us: we were now living next to the Santa Fe River! It’s called a river, but it flows more like a stream. It is definitely natural and is definitely flowing. I chose a beautiful red leaf and wrote our wish on it. My husband and I moseyed down to the bridge over the river, made our wish together and tossed the leaf into the running stream.
“That’s not another dimension,” said my dear friend when I told her what we’d done. I figured we had tried, and that was that. Then I realized that we had recently made an impulsive decision to go to St. Louis for a family wedding. We could actually return to Cahokia during the trip and make a wish similar to the one we made last time! It was the perfect solution. This time my brother and his fiancee agreed to go with us. Lynnsie is a top real estate agent in St. Louis and had taken time to really talk turkey to us about the sale of the Santa Fe house. We knew the marketing for our house had to change, and she gave us great advice on what to do.
We were glad they were with us on a cold, windy, but sunny day as we climbed up the 140 steps of Monk’s Mound, the same as we had done fourteen years ago. It was the most obvious place from which to launch our wish. Not only is it the highest point in the park, it is also the largest prehistoric earthen structure in the Americas at about 100 feet high, 955 feet long, and 775 feet wide. We trudged around the top of the mound enjoying the view of the St. Louis Riverfront for a few minutes. When we felt ready, my husband and I, arms around each other, made our wish. For extra luck we made another wish with the iconic St. Louis Arch in our sights, almost like making a wish with a chicken wishbone.
When we returned to Santa Fe we discussed new marketing plans with our agents. We talked about having the house staged, getting new photos, and creating a new brochure. Two days later, before we could implement any of these new plans, there was a showing of the house to a prospective buyer. Two days after that we had a written offer on the house and, after some negotiation, we had an actual contract! Fast forward about six weeks and the sale of our house closed. We were now happily free of the obligations of home ownership. For us, this whole experience confirms that Cahokia is indeed a magical place.
Laurie and her husband Michael recently gave up home ownership and traveled across town to live in a beautiful retirement community in downtown Santa Fe. This "trip" has consumed the last six months of their lives with many heart wrenching decisions made along the way. They are looking forward to different kinds of travel adventures in the near future.
