It has been a great week, I’ve spent much of it outdoors. On Saturday I hiked to the Mountain Play from downtown Mill Valley with my friend, Julie, and met some of my sisters and friends there. This year’s play was The Wizard of Oz. I was so impressed with the performers, they were very professional, the costumes were great, everyone seemed to be having so much fun. The only disappointment was that the outdoor theater was only about half full. Not sure if it was because of the heat earlier in the week, or the fact that they didn’t have the Mountain Play last year so it wasn’t on people’s radars or something else. At least it meant that the hike back down was not as crowded as it usually is. Our feet were tired at the end of that 14 mile trek! My sister, Lori, stayed over. She went to a Giants game on Friday night, then was supposed to come to the Mountain Play with us, but was only able to hike part of the way up before she started coughing a lot and wasn’t able to easily catch her breath. So, she ended up hanging out at West Point Inn for a while before feeling ready to hike back down. Luckily, she has a couple of doctor’s appointments coming up to help figure out whatever this mysterious ailment is that she’s been dealing with on and off for the last year or so. We were able to get out for a couple of walks with Javi over the weekend.
On Sunday, I drove up to the Muir Beach Outlook and took the Owl Trail over to Slide Ranch, where I was volunteering for the morning. I have many fond memories of Slide Ranch both from when I was a kid and when my kids got to come when they were at Eagle Peak Montessori. There were about 8 of us pulling weeds in the gardens, a wonderful group, including a sophomore at Tam High (my alma mater) who is now a counselor in training. One of the adult volunteers was camper at Slide Ranch for several years when she was a kid and her parents drove her to and from El Cerrito (a 40 minute drive each way) for 5 weeks every summer! I was not that dedicated of a parent, lol. Later I got to milk one of the goats and realized how much I missed doing that. I was happy that milking came back to me quite naturally and easily. It was a lovely morning.
On my way home I stopped at the library and picked up the adult summer reading program form. The summer reading program was always one of my favorite things to do when my kids were young, and I’m so happy the Mill Valley Library has a program for adults too. I’m already looking at reading some different kinds of books based on the ‘bingo’ selections they have.
Monday found me volunteering at SPARE again, more sorting of all kinds of random donations. Later I stopped by an art gallery in Sausalito, I’d been wanting to check out. The artist was working on a large piece, it was cool to watch her work. The woman standing next to me was wearing a clear backpack with a live parrot inside!
Over the rest of the week I did paid and JNE volunteer work, played with color during my art time, picked blackberries on my walk and took my mom to run errands. I got out for some long walks. One morning I hiked the Laurel and Miwok trails over to Haypress camp and back again. At one point the fog was so thick, it was basically raining! It was early enough that I saw almost nobody on the trail, it’s so nice having that time to myself.
On Friday, I took a class at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art called Haiku Collage. We used flax fibers and natural materials to create decorative art pieces. It was an absorbing, creative class, definitely something I will do more of on my own. Later that night I had a lovely, long video call with Annemarie, catching up on everything that she’s doing. She’s in such a good place in her life right now, which makes me happy, especially since she’s so far away. It was really challenging when she was struggling with different things a couple of years ago and I couldn’t easily go over and see her. So to see her enjoying her new job, her friends, getting involved in theater and volunteering, planning trips to visit friends and taking good care of her health is wonderful.
I’m currently reading Walking with Sam, Andrew McCarthy’s book about walking the Camino Française with his son a couple years ago. I’m glad that he is more humble in this book than he was in his movie I watched a couple of weeks ago, Brats, where he just kept talking about the negative impact on his career from being part of the ‘Brat Pack’ back in the ’80s, and feeling sorry for himself. I like learning about other people’s adventures on the Camino, even though it’s a different one than the one we’re doing in September. I am also enjoying the interactions he’s having with his teenage son, the feelings of frustration, anger, love and pride, as well as insecurities (am I doing this right?)
This Saturday I hiked up to West Point Inn (WPI), arriving early enough so I could sip my coffee and read my book about the Camino Portuguese before volunteering for the monthly work party. I want to become a WPI member, and in order to do so you have to volunteer 3 times before you submit your application. I met some lovely people, including a few folks that I recognized from times I’ve stayed at WPI, as well as women I’ve met via Rainbow Sierran hikes and at Green Gulch Ranch. It’s neat meeting folks through these overlapping interests. My first job was cleaning out and organizing the games cupboard. I had just about finished pulling everything out and was trying to figure out what my next step would be when one of the members came over with a young girl, probably about 10, and asked if she could help me out. At first, I was hesitant thinking, ‘Oh, man, is this kid actually going to do anything or will I just end up babysitting?’ I was pleasantly surprised when she jumped right in, and enthusiastically started organizing the dominos. She was a real joy to work with. I’m glad I let go of my initial feeling of being irked, wanting to just do it myself. I also helped clean bathrooms, and scraped paint off windows. After we were done with our work, it was time to eat lunch and it was some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had – 3 different types of quiche, green and fruit salads, and a yummy peanut butter berry bar. I knew lunch was supplied, but I had no idea it would be so yummy! I’m looking forward to the next time I get to volunteer. I love spending time at WPI, whether it’s just for a couple of hours or a couple of days. When I got home I made bagels- yummy!
I am taking a 4 day poetry intensive class next week through the College of Marin. I haven’t done a lot of poetry writing, but I’ve always wanted to give it a go. I liked the idea of having different writing prompts, and working with a group of people. It’s great having things to look forward to. So, yeah, life is really good right now. I’m feeling very happy, Mom is doing well, I’ve been connecting with my kids, seeing my sisters, spending time with friends and meeting new people. Lucky me! Here’s some poetry I recently wrote:
Come Celebrate with Me
Come celebrate with me
Celebrate this new…
Freedom
Adventure
running forward into the unknown
letting it break you
fall down
be messy
Unconstrained
loud.
Something you are not supposed to be.
Step away, Run away, Hide from
that conventional life from
what you are supposed to do from
the safety
from everything that’s holding you down, keeping you small, telling you that there’s a certain way to do things.
You know that’s not true.
Get up.
Dance,
crawl,
laugh,
cry.
Walk into the wind,
push yourself too hard.
Sleep in.
Do nothing.
Make art that makes no sense.
Don’t stop.
Or do stop. Let it all go. Give it all away. Abandon all those things. The things that constrain you. The things that keep you stuck and scared,
If you don’t have those things you are free.
You are free to
be your true self.
Be different.
Come celebrate with me.
Celebrate that we can yell into the wind until we are hoarse.
We can dance with abandon until our feet are so tired. And then, later, alone, rest like small children.
We don’t have to be responsible. We can really love one another.
Not just doing what duty says we should do,
what we feel we are supposed to do, what convention, community, society, our parents, our friends, our children, tell us we should do.
When we can be ourselves, we respond in a natural way.
We become instinct, knowing what is right and wrong.
What we need to do to take care of ourselves, to take care of others.
Come celebrate with me.
Celebrate expressing who you really are.
Celebrate allowing others to be who they really are.
Celebrate letting go.
Of not needing things to be a certain way.
Help others to let go.
Learning how to share
Knowing when you have enough, when you have too much
Seeing how little stuff you need…
and how much touch you need.
How much more touch.
And love
and ears to listen.
Arms to hold.
Come celebrate with me as we listen to each other. Really listen.
We see each other, open our eyes and recognize what has been there right in front of us.
What we can’t see because we are too busy rushing, doing, accumulating, hoarding, keeping track and measuring, defining, deciding.
Come celebrate with me.
You don’t have to sit in traffic.
You don’t have to sit in front of that computer
You don’t have to look at your phone.
You don’t have to.
You don’t.
You just need to be you. With me.
Come celebrate.