It IS Oakland…

It’s windy, cold and clear. The Grand Old Oaks on the hill are ruffling in the bluster, looking like the ‘fros sported in the ‘sixties, as they were buffeted by breezes on Peace Marches and CORE, SNCC, SDS, and Black Panther demonstrations.

It IS Oakland...

As of today, we’re taking extra precautions in our home.

Yesterday, at mid-day, in the intersection of our street with the main drag up into the hills, a neighbor was held up at gun point in her car, robbed, and struck in the face by the butt of the gun. This was the boldest anti-social act of several committed within the last three weeks within a few blocks of home.

I’m heartened by the PRO-social actions of neighbors coming by to introduce themselves, bringing our rubbish bins in from the street, in our absence, and the general congeniality of folks we’ve met in the neighborhood and businesses nearby.

A movement is afoot to have a contracted security company patrol the streets here in Chabot Park. This action is similar to what our daughter’s neighbors have done in her sweet, but at-the-effect-of-hungry-or-angry- ones neighborhood. Oakland Police Department is stretched too thin. Response times to burglary reports or alarm systems going off range from forty-five minutes to two hours. Neighbors are taking things into their own hands. We will probably join the ranks of folks paying a premium for what we hope will be more frequent and consistent patrolling.

It IS Oakland, and Berkeley adjacent...

In our travels out of San Francisco by way of Berkeley Sunday, we came across the Berkeley Bowl Market. Wow! Better than Whole Paycheck in their selection and price. Just don’t try to PARK there! One of our camp family members gave us a gift card there. Can't wait to use it!

We hope to have the TIME this coming weekend to explore more. We’ve had guests every weekend since we moved here, except the one during which we went to camp! VERY wonderful to have the world come to us, and to have deep conversations around the table... and some kazoo, piano, and guitar playing.

The granddaughter held court with six camp counselors supporting her play Friday night. She smelled the safety and bossed us around with perfect imperiousness.  

Tonight I start a writing class, led by a Bodynamics/SE colleague. Should be fun... and an impetus (boot to the butt) for me to get writing more consistently.

While I MISS my familiar peeps in Southern California, writing, being with the grandie, and semi-retirement are the perks of the move. Plus more time with my honey!

Thugs be damned. There will probably be thugs even on the MOON... should we choose to move again!

Late Night Musings

This just in…

Two tired counselors from Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times drove 7.5 hours to return to their NEW home from their beloved OLD camp in Idylwild (in the mountains above Palm Springs).

What a marvelous four-day weekend spent with 101 adolescents and about 40 fellow counselors.

Pun and I kept each other awake for the drive 
up the 5… getting in about 8:45pm.

Hoping your celebrations of Dr. King's birthday were filled with whatever makes your eyes 
light up.

I'll be continuing my commitment to writing, Tuesday… after some horizontal shut-eye.

For those who have been reading: THANK YOU!

For those who have given me feedback on the CD: THANK YOU!

Filled from toes to crown with gratitude for all the joyful adventures in which I get to participate.

My Monday Muse…

My Monday Muse...

...has sustained me throughout this monumental move from Southern California to Northern California. By sustain, I mean the commitment to blog served me well, this past month, as an anchor to bigger commitments to myself as a writer.

During the weekend, I was a participant in a Bodynamics course, along with eight other students and three faculty members of The Bodynamics Institute, USA. I got to be in a demo session for Grounding in Early Will Structure. In finding those muscles that support me sticking to the task I’ve chosen, I re-committed to writing for at least two hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday is the “given”, in that I have been able to maintain that discipline even during the busy-ness of relocating.

So, with eleven witnesses metaphorically looking over my shoulder, I’m deferring further opening of boxes, un-packing, and even stripping beds and generally “tidying up” after four folks slept here within the last week, so that I may steep more deeply in the adventure of writing beyond once a week.

Acknowledging, during the session, that my beloved and I have different ways of “landing” in this new place, has helped me find some ease, grace, acceptance, and some humor in how different we are. His need is to have it all done ASAP. Mine is to do spurts of unpacking, sifting and sorting - interspersed with times of replenishing practices (yoga, meditation and walks), and social engagement with peers, friends, and family. We have plenty of time to settle-in. I don’t feel an urgency. To his credit, he made HUGE progress in the un-packing process in the living room and garage over the weekend! With happy heart I hugged him.

Sunday night found the house abuzz with as many of my Bodynamics family here in the Bay Area as could make it for supper and conversation, a colleague who is here for another workshop, and a lovely mom and seven year old from L.A. who made an over-night stop here during a very special week-long, mother-daughter road trip. Both Mark and I thoroughly enjoyed the stimulation of conversation, laughter and good food, punctuated by joyful outbursts of an active seven-year-old-girl-child, who has immediate access to how to have fun. She particularly loved running, sliding, and “skating” on the hardwood floors in her stocking feet and jean-covered seat. I joined her in the skating.

I’m delighted, as is my husband, that this new home, like the old home in L.A., is turning out to be a resource of lovely, welcoming proportions. The kitchen is gracious, the space is spacious, and apart from a persistent skunk, who nightly sprays the back of the house with her stinky, pungent, punitive(?) essence, we are feeling sooooo lucky to be able to live here and enjoy company and the spectacular view. 

This morning, one of my colleagues left at 4 O’Clock, to catch a flight back to Calgary. I got up to see her off. When I opened the bathroom door off our bedroom, the sulfurous smell was so strong my eyes burned. I think we need some help in the skunk deterrent department! Another thing to add to the list… after doing some more yoga!

Box by Box

Un-packing is an art unto itself.

When a family has TWO moving vans full of STUFF, you can bet it's too much for them.

By Friday night, I was in denial and total overwhelm about ever getting my office put together in any semblance of order. Basically, I'm combining two rooms (my healing, seeing clients room, and my writing, business office space) into one room that is smaller than either of those rooms at the old house. Cozy is my new mantra. Cozy curtains, cozy cot, cozy closet! Mercifully it's a spacious closet, and allows for storage of several blankets, books, massage sheets & supplies, baby toys, and teaching materials.

Setting out the altar will be a welcomed and final touch. I must get a feel for the room before I can figure out the placement of it. Its implicit presence in my heart and mind have dictated the configuration of the room:  All spokes relate to its hub-ness, so I've had a general idea of where it will be, but the precise choreography has yet to be revealed. I'm valuing the guidance from unseen "friends."

Our granddaughter, daughters, and their guy pals have been so very helpful this entire weekend! From making meals, to hanging curtains and assorted mirrors, paintings, hooks and hardware, they have turned the tide from overwhelm to seeing the possibilities for completion of the settling-in process.

My work is cut-out for me:  Sewing the shoe bag, hanging a couple of shelves, and the stained glass window, and vacuuming… endless vacuuming, as more and more boxes are emptied and the detritus within falls out. It is very satisfying to cut the bottom tape of each empty box and squeeze the box flat to add to the ever increasing pile of flattened and empty cartons. Free-Cycle, here we come!

Saturday night brought some excitement in the form of a funny black and white "kitty" which busied itself digging ferociously for something in the back garden. When it released an amazing and lingering scent, we remembered that we're not in the "city" anymore! Can you deter skunks with anything?

The other "excitement" is that there seems to be no access to use an auger in the main drain line. After calling at least four plumbing companies, to no avail, "Paul" showed up an hour and a half later than the promised time, and informed us that it would be a two person, 90 foot line job and run about $400 to clear the line so the toilets will work. We're calling for a second opinion now that the New Year's weekend is at an end. Wish us well this week, please!

Royal flushes sound dreamy.

Happy Healthy Joy-filled New Year to you and your dear ones.

May Peace Prevail!

In Between

What’s Winnie the Pooh’s middle name?

The.

What’s The’s middle part?

H.

That stands for Half-Way.

Pooh’s creator, A.A. Milne, wrote a poem about that potent half-way place.

Half way down the stairs is a stair where I sit.

There isn’t any other stair quite like it.

I’m not at the bottom, I’m not at the top.

So this is the stair where I always stop

Half way up the stairs isn’t up and isn’t down.

It isn’t in the nursery, it isn’t in the town,

And all sorts of funny thoughts run round my head.

It isn’t really anywhere! It’s somewhere else instead.

My beloved and I are presently in an in-between place. Not completely moved out of L.A. and not all the way moved in to the new place in Oakland. Up to our keesters in cartons, evaluating each item we withdraw from box after box, room after room. Stuff tells its own story... and there’s way too much of it in our lives at the moment.

This is a story about the potency of that in-between space, and how taking time to inhabit it adds value, depth and appreciation to my life.

In yoga there’s a word for it: dvaadashanta, which translates to “that peaceful (shanti=peace) place in-between.” When a swing has reached the zenith of its arc, it pauses just before it begins to swing the other way.

In between our in breath and out breath, there is a little pause. There’s another when we reach the end of our exhale - just before the breath turns around to come back in. Yogi’s say, that it’s in those little pauses where we’ll find our true nature; what I call our “Big S Self.” The Self that’s beyond gender, job description, status, race, beliefs, or age. Those are all part of us… but those descriptions are the ‘little s self,’ or personality, and just the tip of the iceberg. The Big S part is so vast and incomprehensible that we cannot grasp it except for the wee glimpses which the half-way down the stairs contemplations afford us.

Saturday and Sunday evening, I got to watch the sunset over San Francisco Bay. That ‘not fully day / not yet night’ is another in between place. The beauty of it lent extra enjoyment to the extended in-between-ness. Mark and I just hunkered down on the beautiful green hill all mud-luscious and puddle wonderful after the rain, and just WERE in the moment. It was found time, set apart, and all sorts of funny thoughts seem to leave my head, allowing a sense of peace to permeate all my cells from the inside out.

This move from one city to another offers various transitions which I’m relishing: from seeing a lot of clients, to anticipating seeing way fewer; from being an off-handed gra’ma to being a very hands-on sort of gra-ma.

Change allows me to re-evaluate what’s essential - just as the activity of boxing and unboxing possessions affords me an opportunity to question do I need/want this item? And further, who or what is possessing me? Do I really possess anything?

It feels as if I am possessed by my possessions. Finding the juicer seems all consuming… yet patience yields more benefit than does frantic searching through all the as yet unopened boxes.

In Between allows me to question every action, every choice, every thought. It seems I have a lot of weeding to do, in order for my internal garden to flourish.

With gratitude, I embrace this transition, even while struggling with some of the loss of familiar friends, family, and neighborhoods. I foresee a time when the now home will be bustling with new friends, colleagues, and neighbors, and the familiars will come to camp out here too. Then, we can all be in-between together!

Have Yourself a Merry…

We’re HERE!

Christmas Eve, and we’re slowly coming out of the boxes and seeping into the new digs - every bit as much as the new home is seeping into us. I didn’t stub my toes last night on all the boxes in the path to the bath, and, as of this evening’s dinner of soup (again), I made toast on a genuine cookie sheet, instead of on an aluminum pie tin from the camping tub. Progress!! We’re finding stuff slowly, by slowly… and we will be BETTER PREPARED to move again, should need arise, before we’re outa this life feet first! We learned a LOT doing this, and feel so grateful for the Expert Team moving crew who stayed with us every step of the way - even when the larger of the two trucks couldn’t make it up the steep hill from 580 to our street without a tow chain to help it along. Blessings on Julio and his loyal workers: Francisco, Carlos, and Jose. Christmas Spirit reigns. Glad tidings: The job is well done. 

Today, we got connected to the inter webs thanks to a lovely AT&T man named Ron. 

Tomorrow, will be a luxurious, do-nothing-but-unpack kinda day! Yay!

Turns out, there are a LOT of moving parts to moving farther than just around the same city. Did I mention, we learned a LOT!?? Label every item that’s in every box... it’s worth it! Where IS that box with real onions?? OH... follow the smell... THERE you are! And the toaster?  Not yet sighted.

Happy Holies. Toasty, Cozy 25th!

Eager to see the Grandie for longer than the 15 minute visit we allowed this evening, before she went off to her dad’s house. We've got some germs that moved with us. Drat! Looking forward to feeling well enough to PLAY, after we recover from whatever malady got shared at little brother’s BD, December 20! Coming out from under. Every moment is better than the one before.

Looking out on the SF skyline this December 24th, it’s the gratitude that makes the tears flow so that the lights have tails and topknots, and arms splaying out in all directions. Pure, full-bodied GRATITUDE that we get to have this adventure; this next chapter; this opportunity to be of service and to meet new folks who like doing something for kids too. Enjoying my honey so much... just sifting and sorting and casting out still more crap that we accidentally moved with us, is a joy with him as companion.

Both of us were gob-smacked by the outpouring of love over the weekend, and we are still leaning into buoyant love .

May every holiday celebration bring you joy. May you thrive as light returns to the northern hemisphere.  Know that you are loved.

Culmination

It's been just over 21 years and a couple of months since I sang eleven of my songs to some 150 friends and family members in celebration of my 45th birthday. I called 45 my "record-breaking year." I got together a few friends to sing with me, and a little back-up band. A Phoenix Rising Yoga buddy played keyboards, and I swapped her sessions for transcribing the music. I'd done a lot of healing of my childhood wounds, and was ready to come out of the shadows… I thought.

At the party, a dad from our school carpool asked if he could arrange one of the songs, and we were off and running on an adventure in learning the ins & outs of a small corner of the record business. Well, Ian (Freebairn-Smith) knew the record business. He had Barbra Streisand's Evergreen on his list of Grammy Awards as her arranger.  I knew nothing, but got an education over six months or so. Ten thousand dollars later, we had an audio cassette of my daughter's friend's mom Shirley Cavallero singing, "I Cry for the Children," a song I'd written in 1989.

We shopped that song around to movie producers, Oprah, and Streisand herself. No one seemed interested then, in a sad song about child abuse. Maybe, since its victims are coming forward almost daily, the timing is better now, for the song to be heard.

I hope so, because I just finished a recording project - singing that song, arranged this time by Barry Dow, sandwiched in the middle of eight other songs. I may not be out of the shadows yet, but I'm ready to let 'em fly, like fledgelings off a branch to see where they land.

Thanks to some very talented and very generous friends, the support of my honey Mark and my family, and some prodding from other friends, I forged ahead from August through November in Barry and Lynn Dow's basement recording studio, to capture sketches of nine songs. Barry took the pressure off by saying, "Look, Melinda, you're not making a 'record' down here; you're recording a few melodies that have popped into your head over the years… just so they don't get lost." (Or he said something like that, and it really helped. I wiped my tears, took a deep breath, and kept singing.)

The CDs are ready to give away. If you want one, let me know. 

Thanks to all the supporters and well-wishers, and especially my midwives: Barry and Lynn.

It feels like a timely culmination… just before we move north in a week… YIKES! Pass the packing tape and another box, please!