The New Neighborhood

One of the challenges of my new apartment is my reliance on the car to get me around. This has taken some getting used to. I'd spent the last 8 years being within walking distance to shopping and the BART line, which allowed me a great deal of linear independence. Now, I have a more radial sense of mobility, but it's limited to when I have access to the vehicle. This means, when the Professor has the car for work, I'm essentially marooned here.

I admit, I was starting to get a little stir crazy. Twice a week may not seem like much, but when you're all alone in an apartment ALL DAY (the Prof works late) without so much as a pet, it can get a little isolating. Today, I couldn't take the prospect of spending another gorgeous, sunny day trapped in my apartment alone. So, rather than doing my usual Qi Gong exercise video in my living room, I strapped on my kicks, packed a snack, and headed out my door...

...and look what I found!

I'd seen on maps that we're close to the border of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, and I'd seen some cryptic signs nearby stating "Park Closed" hours, but I'd never found the access to the park. Today, I stumbled upon it during my adventure walk. 

I enjoyed my snack while perched on a boulder, listening to the burble of the creek and the rustle of the wind through the eucalyptus leaves. Now, I've never been much of an outdoor person, but the fresh air and sunshine was seriously like a antidote to the craziness, and I felt my mind still. It was lovely.

After my snack, my explorations took me up into Alvardo Park proper, which is a neat place with stone walls, picnic areas, and wide, sunny fields. I foresee some serious toes-in-the-grass time once the weather gets even warmer.

The best part was, I had most of the area to myself. There were a few young mothers with their children, and a man with his little dog, but on the whole I could explore in peace. Odd to say, since it was solitude that drove me out of the apartment, but it's different when you're out in nature. I didn't feel alone...I felt connected to the web of life in a way that I hadn't in a long time.

Now that I know it's there, I think afternoon walks in the park are going to become part of my regular routine. Having this nearby sure beats a shopping center any day of the week!

Mind: Healing Up

It's been about a week and a half since the car crash, and Adam and I are doing a lot better. I'm walking without the cane, and today I was even able to get out of bed without its help. I'm still really sore in places, especially the ribs where the seatbelt was, but the bruising has all really come down.

However, I'm in that frustrating stage of healing where parts of my are feeling normal, and other parts of me are so not. I forget sometimes that I'm not healed 100%, and will go to do something like bend down or reach a bit to far, and my body reminds me that it's still not okay.

I have to say though, I've been so lucky in all this to have such wonderful people looking out for me, from my in-laws who nursed Adam and I in the days immediately following the crash to my parents and brother who came up to the Bay Area from SoCal to help us get settled back in at home.



These gorgeous roses were waiting for Adam and I when we got home after the crash on New Year's Eve, courtesy of my loving family. They're still blooming strong.

Also, there's been a few surprises. My Mama talked to our across-the-way neighbor the day before she left to go back home, and the very next night the sweet neighbor-lady showed up on our doorstep with a home cooked chicken curry dinner and this lovely narcissus plant:


I love watching it bloom day by day in our kitchen. It reminds me how I'm getting better day by day as well...slowly, but surely.

Eye: The Arms of Central Park

"Canopy"

Central Park in the fall, the first she'd ever seen. The crisp sunlight threw dappled shapes onto the worn pavement through the trees, which sighed contentedly in the cool breeze. The first caress of winter had tinted the very edges of the leaves in brown lace, preparing them for their new, cold weather wardrobe.

She was not looking up, though, nor out at the park. She stared only at her traveling companion's denim-draped back, at the impatient feet briskly trotting away from her. The silence between them had grown as long as the tunnel of fresh green ahead; the chill encroaching as surely and steadily on their words as it was on the greenery.

It was only a matter of time before winter fell.

Eye: Spider's Delight

"Abandoned Aloe"

Only the spiders kept vigil, shielding themselves from the crystalline rain under the plant's sturdy fronds. They knew it was only a matter of time before their home shriveled in this industrial wasteland, but to the tiny arachnids, the slow creak of decay would span generations, and even the husk of their organic palace would serve as monument to their own eternal survival.