...not that I am blaming anybody.
I am really glad that I came and that I am doing this. I hope these crazy kind of writings make sense. The short access times to a computers necessitates that I write at a breakneck speed and plus I don't concentrate well in public places and there just are not any private ones for the traveler in need of an electric socket.
ODE to James for being willing to carry this heavy laptop...James Dyer, James Comfort has gone back home just to clarify things.
This past week described very briefly in "Intermission" was really a time of adjustment for me.
The days blur together and so it is difficult to pull out separate events as being part of such and such day so here I will not try to do that. I will instead write what comes to my head because there are reasons why some events come to our heads and others do not. I believe I remember these stories because they fall under a theme or because they speak of universal truths...
Ok enough disclaimers
Theme of Human Kindness
One of the things about a trip like this is that kindness is a very practical virtue rather than something to talk about. We don't talk about how the world needs kindness...we do it and we start within our mini tribe.
Yes I am part of some crazy mini tribe.
I want to thank my incredible team.
Last week when we were in Santa Cruz that final night...I had left my walking stick behind (my teammates could twitter about all the stuff I am always losing).
"OOOH $%#T"
was my rather carnal response.
I was greatly upset as the stick is handmade--a gift from my Dad. Plus I suffer from occasional vertigo because of some inner nerve damage connected with my hearing loss so I depend on that stick! It was either get on the bus and leave it behind or go back and miss what we thought was the last bus out. James graciously offered to get the stick for me and the group was willing to stay another rainy night in Santa Cruz for me but I told them no...turned out we had missed the bus already anyway and I was able to get the staff and then we all got on another bus...Not only that but we were able to look at cool art since the next bus was three hours later.
That meant so much to me that they were willing to do that!
Thankful
I am thankful for the gray sky of a day in which I have no desire to go into the ocean. It feels wonderful to sit here and write. As one with ADHD, I depend on bad weather sometimes to help me focus on things like sitting and reflecting.
Theme of Enjoying Art:
One of the things that I really want from the trip is to be where we are and have opportunity to both absorb and create things of beauty (landscapes/painting/installations/words/deeds)
Art and History Museum:
Admission: Free
Theme: surfing and more surfing/history of early settlers of Santa Cruz
Did you know that Santa Cruz is the first place in the continental U.S. to have surfers (introduced by Hawaiian visitors)?
Way COOL!
I want to surf and be inside the tubes with the wave crashing over my head!
Photos
Paintings
Installations
(some of them moved)
I was in awe
Art truly feeds the soul, even to the point that I can be tired and hungry and I will not feel either when I contemplate art.
So it is cool that a week later in Pacifica we went to the opening night of Art on Fire (which included a 40 minute Belly Dancing performance). Did you know that Belly dancing was taught by mothers to their daughters?
I love getting inside the heads of others and it was fun to see the work of other artists--lifted the day above the ordinariness of packing, cooking, eating and trying to stay warm. You see...it has been the ordinariness that is so challenging.
Ask about the night I fought with my tent because the ground was bumpy or when I accidentally knocked over the propane stove while cooking dinner on a hill in the dark.
We may be spiritual beings having a material experience but often it is the irritations of the physical/material realm (like being cold, tired, hungry and/or in pain) that make it difficult to act spiritually.
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