A month after moving to Lopez...

Life in transition. I used to look out my window and see miles and miles of Bangkok buildings. There was scarcely a tree in sight. I wore shorts and (maybe) a tee-shirt. Now I look out the window and see windswept trees, white caps on dark blue water that spans for miles to the Olympic mountains which – at this moment – are in snow capped brilliance. Now when I emerge from the warm cocoon of three layers of down comforters, I scurry into layers of long underwear, down vest, gloves in the morning (in the afternoon the sun sometimes comes out in a blaze of glory, and we can put on shorts!).

(This video shows a panorama of where we get to call home for now! We feel so fortunate.)

What are we doing here? This morning on an early morning jaunt, I witnessed an eagle, half a dozen deer, and Indian paintbrush flowers in full bloom on mossy rocky outcroppings. I guess that’s what we’re doing here. Soaking in nature after years of city. Trying out an entirely different mode of life. We moved to Lopez Island a month ago after eight years in Bangkok. The idea was to try a new balance of “wellbeing, career, family”.

In Bangkok we’ve been very happy on aspects of the ‘career’ and ‘family’ aspects. We had endless fascinating work to do on energy and social justice – fun! but with a tendency towards burn-out. We had Chom’s wonderful family just down the street, who nurtured us with two or three meals a day, and provided lots and lots of childcare which allowed us to get our ‘career’ work done.

The ‘well-being’ dimension suffered, though. Polluted air. Lots of concrete. And we were never really sure where our food was coming from. Also, getting Ty, in particular, to go to school was like pulling teeth. (The photo at right seemed to capture too much of his Thai school experience -- alienated and not psyched about a rather authoritarian educational style).

Another aspect of being here is to reconnect with 'home'. For a long time Lopez has been 'home' in a kind of abstract way. But it's wonderful to experience it as something real and connect with folks that were a part of my youth (i was here 3rd grade through the end of high school and spend a lot of time on Lopez through college years and before grad school at Berkeley). In the time I was gone the community has blossomed beautifully. We have a community radio station (KLOI 102.9 FM) , regular Quaker meeting, a great juggling crowd, and lots of potlucks.

Family is a big draw too -- mom and sister and her wonderful husband Clive and their baby Noni.