COTTONWOOD TREES, NO. 5, AUTUMN, NEAR LA CIENEGA, NEW MEXICO 1996
Photograph by ©Craig Varjabedian  All Rights Reserved

These triumphant, glowing cottonwoods heralded a new life for me as a father. A week after this photograph was made, our daughter, Rebekkah, was born. Unofficially, Kathy and I call this photograph “Rebekkah’s Trees.” We didn’t know whether she would be a girl or a boy, nor did it matter—we just wanted a healthy, happy baby. We got a little girl as strong and gorgeous as the trees. This photograph mirrors all the joy and excitement we felt at the time of her birth and the new journey our families, Kathy’s and mine, were about to take together.

My family heritage is Armenian. Kathy can trace her family back to the early Pilgrims. We live in New Mexico, surrounded by a diverse community, learning much from the past about how to live in the present and plan for the future. I may not have a santo or a katsina doll to teach me, but I can look to the cottonwood trees for lessons. I recognize that the roots are needed to sustain the branches. I know the seeds travel far and need special nurturing to grow. I understand that future trees will produce seeds and that these seeds in their turn will travel to produce new trees. I have become, like the tree roots, the supporter and nurturer of my daughter. I like to think that cottonwoods nurture us all, just as a santo or katsina might, just as a mother or a father will.