It appears that two weeks out from leaving New England my body is pretty firmly on West Coast time.
I spent almost a week in Phoenix for the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, Jan flew out for the weekend, followed by a drive from there up to Flagstaff and then more or less along the ruin of route 66 into California, culminating with a week in Los Angeles.
Our native California, where we were both born and lived until we began to follow that dream work of ministry leading us across the country…
And now, today, we fly home to Rhode Island, with among other things that nasty lurch into a three hour earlier time zone. As I continue on holiday, not such a big deal. But for Jan who returns to work on Thursday, this isn’t going to be a cake walk.
The price of visiting family, I guess.
It’s been a slow and uneventful week here. I had a nice visit with Jane & Peter Schneider who lead a lovely small Zen sangha in Northridge. Jan & I spent a day in the Long Beach area, our long term fantasy retirement location. And where we unexpectedly ran into Danny Fisher, a Buddhist blogger and social advocate whose work I’ve long admired, and who I was first supposed to meet in the general vicinity of Tibet a bunch of years ago on a trip that ended up never happening. Later we attended worship services at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach. A happening place.
Jan spent some serious family time with her mother and sister. We also visited with a nephew and a niece. We celebrated Jan’s & my thirtieth wedding anniversary with a dinner, and attended another family dinner as an early birthday celebration for Jan’s mom. I’ve done some writing. Read a murder mystery. That’s about it.
When we get home I have some serious writing to do. Then off to Toledo for a sesshin. Followed by a little more writing time. And then our dai sesshin in Worcester.
After which, well, slipping back toward the regular rhythms of our lives…
And California becomes, once again, a long ago dream…
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