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July 15th 2010

Published: July 16th 2010

The journey has continued. I am presently in Berkeley, enjoying the hospitality of a glorious fellow fairhaven student, Laura G. This is the somewhat abbreviated version of what has happened since the last entry:
I took some sweet days of drinking in the nectar of my family, then traveled in a 40-year-old VW bus (named Ruby Slippers) from Seattle to outside of Eugene, with dear friends and crafting almost the whole way down.
The Oregon Country Fair.... indescribably magical. It is a good reinforcement of the scale of creativity humans incorperate into their lives. It was perfect to work for Cory and Catska (check out their spirit-shaking art at enchgallery.com). Basically, it was the best possible gathering to go to for my last days in Cascadia, and I had fun dancing and dumpster-diving with everyone down there.
I then traveled south to Ashland with a kind-hearted puppeteer/permaculturalist named Albert. Albert has been coming to the Country Fair for longer than I have been alive, and a friend helped me link up with him to travel south. He had recently traveled to the Andes himself, and had fantastic books and stories to share. He was one of many people who have been encouraging of my project since the moment we met, and had great tips to offer me.

Douglas Fir, Maple, many Madronas (the farthest I have ever seen them from the oceanside), sword ferns, pines, bare hills, rolling cascades on one side and the jagged siskiyous on the other, scanty river beds, deep valleys, golden foothills obviously lacking the forests I have grown to associate with the horizon my entire life.

Ashland is cute, we almost all know this. Farmers market, library, and the food co-op were my main stops until I got another ride south with a calm and friendly man named Joey. He is a bike-building, fire-sculpture welding, npr pod-cast subscribing guy who also happens to be the son of a back-to-the-land weaver mother. I LOVE my life, and these beautiful synchronicities.

We drove, with another lady named Myra, all the way to Santa Rosa. This journey went a little more like this: rolling hills, madrona, pine, douglas fir, ascending the siskiyous, mt Shasta in all of her glory, green sage and scotch broom, eventually giving way to the dry river beds, flatness, and monocropped fields of California's own Central Valley, with very dry hills eventually breaking it up. My favorite part of the central valley was definitely ginormous fields of sunflowers, all looking in the same direction, with hope and practically solidarity. (Although I didn't get to visit the redwoods, as planned, I'm sure this will materialize some other time, perhaps on my way home in a year.)

California is very different from home, enough said. I got dropped off in Santa Rosa and had a beautiful day or two in the sun with two dear female friends, talking deep philosophy under the hot sunshine, or eating decadent raw meals. I also began my personal journal on a glorious note. I haven't regularly kept a journal for years, and I'm feeling good about it as a tool for communicating with myself. This blog, on the other had, is more pertaining to the details of my travels than my processing, mind-state, or emotional texture.

It was nice to be around women, and have an infusion of that before I took the bus to San Francisco today (Highlight: floating through the fog on the golden gate bridge, we couldn't see more than 10 ft from the city bus). I had an amusing time walking miles and miles up and down hills downtown, visiting the Ecuadorean Consulate and meditating in cathedrals. It felt nice to calmly float around the city, and hear tongues from all over the world on the mouths of tourists consulting maps in the middle of the sidewalk, or in the corners of Chinatown or the consulate. S.F. is a nice place, full of energy, but I remember being more taken with it the last time I was here, at age 14. Now I am curious how such a urban area is sustained, etc.

also, the realization is sinking in that cities all generally feel the same, even though the cultures change.

I winding down in Berkeley, and have tomorrow to run some last errands (like acquiring a cable so that I may share my photographs with all of you beautiful people). Then in the evening I am traveling from here to LA (which, for those who are curious, is slightly less than one-third of the distance from Bellingham to LAX), with a nice guy from riseshare postings. I get to visit a dear friend I haven't seen in person for over a year, then make my way to Quito via the airport. YAY!

I was talking about this journey with my friends in Santa Rosa, an pin-pointed the somatic theme of the present part of the journey. I can feel a slight twist, clutch, settling, contraction in my stomach when I realize how far away I am from my home. I can feel tears deep down and these sensations in my belly when I am thinking of gigantic cedar groves, strong rivers flowing from mountain-forests, all of the plants, the salish sea, my beautiful family and friends, and all other things cascadian. I am recognizing it as the feeling of not being able to physically ground there anymore, and I feel it in my stomach. However, t is overpowered by a stronger sensation in my head, one of expansions, flow, light, air, pattern, whooshing all of the right directions, and brings me to a place of peace and accepting with where I am (physically and in other ways). Tuning into this feeling is comforting and I know I will be calling on it in the future.

I walked the labrynth in St. Grace's Cathedral today, attempting to symbolize the journey I am taking and asking for guidance. The message was clear- above all, carry Trust, and remember the other lessons I have been given (peace, stillness, seeing the scope of everything, the joy and caring that is always within me and many other useful reminders for going on journeys and also for life in general). I am feeling more ready that ever to be gone for so long, but i am still listening to the twisting in my belly that just wants, one more time, to embrace a cedar tree and feel sheltered by its strength.

I am looking forward to the mountains, and am hoping to make use of the hiking boots and layers and layers of clothes that have seemed ridiculous to be carrying in California.

Bye Y'all, net time I'll be writing from another hemisphere! I hope you're having as much fun as I am, and everyone else I've been seeing on this adventure.
Love, Sus

p.s. "Magic is Real", and Life Keeps Getting Better

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