Back to life

Dear friends,

Moving to Oregon was no magic bullet.

We still struggle, especially with parenting challenges. Sleep still comes and goes for me (I'm on day two of next to nothing). But there's something about this place.

Something that's bringing me back to life.

Part of it is simply the joy of finally being somewhere ELSE, after feeling physically and mentally stuck for so long. Part, finally being somewhere more temperate, after years of intensely cold and icy winters. 

But it's far more than that for me.

Something here calls my soul. Forest and sea together. Fairy tunnels, wooden stairs descending forest paths, mushrooms, ferns, birds birds birds everywhere. Ocean waves as a heartbeat beneath it all.

I told my husband on a recent walk I felt like I'd stepped into The Secret Garden (one of my beloved favorite books in childhood), or tumbled into Wonderland.

Yesterday as my son and I walked around the marina where we're staying, we saw a heap of harbor seals on the docks; a bald eagle being chased off by seagulls; cormorants fishing; tall ships; and even more. Everything here feels lush and alive.

Poetry is finding me again, after many months dry.

Creative ideas are coming faster than I can record.

As I inched around a cliffside curve recently (during King Tides viewing), I came upon a group of grey-haired women and their pups. They were laughing with abandon, faces lit with delight in each other's company and their surroundings. They stepped aside so I could photograph a lighthouse. One woman asked me, "Did you get what you need?"

Yes. Yes. 

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air . . ." --Emerson

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair . . ." --Gibran

Here's to wild air, earth, and sea . . .

With love from PNW,
Amanda

cross-posted on my Patreon for The Phoenix Soul