Can a little girl from the prairies of Canada find happinness on the Central Coast of California with glorious panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean! Absolutely. But what a journey!
I often write about my inner journey, and reveal glimpses of my career path, but today I'm thinking about the crazy crisscrossed map that shows the actual places where I've lived.
Starting in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, moving to little towns on the prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan, settling in the city of Regina, being shipped off to nearby Briercrest, a rural boarding school, leaving Canada for seven years of college and graduate school in Seattle; then to Chicago for seven years, twelve years in Washington, D.C., three years in Texas, twenty years in Los Angeles, and, for the last lovely decade, in a charming village between San Francisco and LA. WHEW!
Lately I've been remembering the prairies with their endless skies - almost black or yellow-green before a hail storm, the crisp crunch of boots on the packed snow - ice skating in the moonlight!
Remembering Seattle...magnificent Mount Rainier and the space needle from the window of my 3rd floor walk-up.
Morning steals over Seattle - softly sweeping away the veil of night;
revealing in that lovely moment two images;
The first formed by Nature before life began, the second erected by man to be part
of the beauty which is Seattle's sky
In Chicago I loved walking along Lake Shore Drive to my office on the 35th tower floor of a landmark building (the one in the middle of this picture) overlooking the wide blue of Lake Michigan...then home to my tiny 4th floor room in an old brownstone.
When Martin Luther King was assassinated my Chicago career felt meaningless. I moved to Washington hoping to 'make a difference'...hating the inequality I saw everywhere.
Teaching, marching, taking action, restoring my little house. I was passionate about everything...surrounded by soul...weeping with Roberta Flack singing "Killing me Softly" upstairs at Mr. Henry's pub ...waving at George McGovern on my way to work at the first state supported university in the District...6000 Black students registered on the first day...finally able to afford higher education in our nation's capitol.
Back to school again in Texas - bicycling along country roads feeling nostalgic for the earthy fresh smell of mornings on my childhood prairies. Los Angeles: that sprawling 'city of angels' wasn't exactly my soul place -
-but UCLA was a fine place to teach, and Santa Monica a wonderful place to create another little soul home. (see The Perfect Medicine)
I've been reading Clare Cooper Marcus' book, Iona Dreaming. The author saw a picture of an older man sitting in a deck chair looking out onto the world, apparently reflecting, ruminating. "Now, I am that person", she says, "No longer pressured to achieve, to produce, to be 'of use'. I reflect on pivotal relationships in my life; I sit and write about what I see and hear around me. That is enough".
I still sometimes worry about being 'of use' in the world. But maybe just 'being' is enough.
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