Monday, October 25, 2010

Less is More

We had a garage sale this weekend and sold a bunch of things we don't need. I'm in a great headspace for purging belongings. Everything has been in storage for a year and will be for another year. Why keep it if you don't use/wear it? Why keep it if it can be replaced? Now, it's time to sort though the rest and donate to a thrift store.

It's amazing how being in the city makes me want to accumulate things! I'm fighting the urge to shop and collect every time I go out. Even online! I try to ignore advertising but it still draws me in sometimes. Mostly, I just love old, antique, vintage, used, abused, second-hand, another man's trash, thrift and flea-market finds.

It is nice to think that one day I will have a house to fill with neat stuff again but for now I am liberating myself from possessions! The less I own the less I have to move around! If you haven't noticed, life is mostly moving things from one place to another (the same can be said for farming :).

Going backpacking is going to be a new lesson in minimalism. Living in the van last winter still allowed us to have more than we needed and to collect. Living out of a backpack for 4 months will not allow that. It's hard to envision exactly what I will need in Hawai'i when I'm sitting in rainy October Vancouver.

My renewed passport just arrived!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Body Workin'!

I just had a massage this morning and a hair cut last night and I feel so gooooood. Time to get out for a bike ride.

If you are in Vancouver and need a massage, please visit my lovely friend Renée LePage. She also has gift certificates! Visit her website: lepagemassage.wordpress.com !

Or if you need a haircut in Vancouver visit my friend Erica van der Basch !

Also, when I ride my bike I protect my brain with a helmet I got from Prohab, a Vancouver not-for-profit organization that gives out helmets by donation. Check out their website: prohab.ca ! They are also selling 2011 Calenders featuring hot bikes and cute girls, with photography by my talented friend Amanda Bullick.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

My Body of Water

I had a really wonderful day yesterday. I met with two of my oldest friends for tea and conversation. Reflecting on our lives over the past ten years and re-discovering our commonalities brought a new light to why we all became friends in the first place.

I am fascinated by relationships, mine and others. What brings us together and draws us apart. I found a quote once that said everyone you meet is your soulmate simply because you have met them. I have always felt a fated quality in certain relationships of mine and often people who are important pop back into my life just when I need them most.

Being "away" so much has taught me to love my friends and family in a more abstract way. I love the idea of these people. I love that they are out there, living their lives and doing what they do. I don't need confirmation of our love, it exists without any definition.

It feels good to love and be loved. Coming back to the city has made me very aware of the true love in my life and I am oh so grateful.

~

Sydney gave me a 'zine yesterday that's getting me even more excited about Hawai'i. Moonlight Chronicles issue 72 is all about this guy going to Maui for the winter to camp and surf and generally live lightly. Looking forward to doing this myself! With my partner in crime of course...

I'm excited to try surfing, boogie boarding and body surfing. And after our summer at Sapo Bravo I actually feel like my body might be prepared for it. I feel physically strong in a way that I never have before. I am not particularly "body aware" and physical labour has allowed me to start connecting to this flesh machine that carries my consciousness around. I think it will be even more amazing to connect with my body and the ocean at once. Pacifica, you call me. You have been calling me my whole life.

The moon, the tides, and the ocean (as metaphor for emotion) as life themes have been illuminated through my recent travels down the Pacific Coast. I have felt the need to connect more deeply with my lunar nature and resolve my adopted attitudes towards emotional effusiveness. I must embrace myself. I can only change what I can, the rest I must accept and integrate.

Living next to the Fraser River, I formed a relationship with that body of water. She needs a woman's name but I cannot say which name. Just that she is not the "Fraser", she is a salmon mother and a passage of time. She is there and she flows into me.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Autumn Bounty

Our season finished with a bang. Literally. The last thing we did before we left was set off a firecracker! It was a celebratory moment for me even though the firecracker went off in my hand before I could drop it! It feels good to have completed the season. We learned so much and made some very solid friends though the experience.

It is a trip to be back in the gray, rainy hive of Vancouver after being on the side of the mountain for so long. I'll miss the stars tonight and the crickets too. They are replaced by streetlights and the hum of the refrigerator.

It feels good to be back in Vancouver. We went to the Farmer's Market for the first time this season and it was nice to see all the happy vegetables. Now it's raining and I'm catching up on correspondence and other internet stuff. Plugged back into the grid!

I'm excited to catch up and have Thanksgiv'r dinner with lovely people Monday. Life is good.