As a new member of the Borrego Springs community, I would like to say hello. My name is Bella and I'm a writer. My husband and I moved here last fall from San Diego, and we've been thanking ourselves every day since.

As an artist/writer duo, we tend to work remotely, which greatly broadened our scope of research as we looked all over the country for a place to call home. Most of our decisions were practical in nature: proximity to hospitals and airports, well maintained roads, infrastructure, etc. But there was something else we were looking for.

We were looking for natural beauty, and we were looking for a place in which civic engagement was important to the community. There were plenty of other great candidates, but candidates they remained. After over two years of research, many lists of pros and cons, and paying close attention to the housing market, we discovered Borrego Springs. Intrigue and curiosity were ignited when we stumbled across an article about Dark Sky Communities. We both grew up in rural towns where the changing landscape of the night sky was as familiar as the path home. The more we learned about Borrego, the more it seemed our search was over.

This is the perfect place for an artist to live; it's hard not to be inspired with every sunrise and sunset accentuating the features of our cathedral of mountains. We have replaced the smell of smog and din of the city with bird songs, bunny hops, and lovely neighbors.

It wasn't until we finally moved here that we learned about some of the other impressive feats of this town, like the library and the Solar farm. We have also learned about some of the challenges that face this town, such as the ongoing management of the aquifer, the toxic dust rising from the Salton Sea, and the opposing desires regarding the proposed general store.

No place is perfect, and no town is ideal, but there is no other place that speaks to the ideal as Borrego does. I can clearly see the rich history of civic engagement, and I'm excited to be involved in finding and creating solutions to the problems that Borregans face in the wake of a changing world.

There is a rich community history here with a healthy dose of art-centric traditions, and Borrego Springs is the place I want to be.

Thank you to everyone I've met thus far for the kind and warm welcome. It's good to be home.