Wonderful-Crazy Life

I am so happy to be back in LA. Despite the still-problematic kitchen sink and the traffic and the gas prices that are now decidedly above $3.00 a gallon, it feels good to be in a place that we can call home. I am sitting in a coffee shop that I frequent, and I have already been to Trader Joe’s and picked up a bunch of wonderful groceries. While this coffee shop is ok, I do, however, wish that there were a more cozy coffee place, but cozy is not a term that can be used very frequently in the “citburban” areas of LA. Hopefully I can manage to have a cozy house to spend time in. I have dreams of a couch with pillows and the perfect cup of coffee all inside my own space. I have my eyes on the Hario Ceramic Coffee Dripper 02 that I saw in a shop the other day. It is such a beauty.

Last night I went on my first little hike since landing out here. I think one of the things that surprised me the most about LA was the topography. There are hills and mountains everywhere, and while you are still very much in the city, and often your only reward for climbing is a better view of a freeway or a power station, you can still hit a dirt trail and head up into the hills.

There is a place on the road between Rodney’s work and our house, and last night we took a stroll up the hill. It is a great dirt path that wanders through trees and then heads almost straight up to overlook the 2. It was nice to get out a little and when you are on the backside of the hill, it is really quite peaceful.

I guess it is worth noting that no matter where you are, it is important to find spaces that you can carve out for the cultivation of sanity and quiet. Jonathan Kaplan has written a book about this, and I am looking forward to having some time to sit and read it after both midterms and moving are finished. It is called Urban Mindfulness: Cultivating Peace, Presence and Purpose in the Middle of It All. I think the title is just what I am looking for. That, and the ceramic coffee dripper.

But even in places that are not urban, I think it is important to cultivate a life that intentionally creates space for just being. I have tried to do that where ever I have been. Sometimes it involved heading to a monastery for the weekend, and sometimes it was going to get pancakes in a quiet cafe where I could take time to read a book and sometimes it was just a day at home where absolutely no cleaning whatsoever occurred. But more often in my life, things have been crazy, and peace and sanity seemed to be firmly drowning under the driving sentiment of survival. In those times, I am learning that cultivating a sense of quiet in my being is still essential to surviving, even if it involves no pancakes at all. Either way, I often have to seek the space out, and I am looking forward to discovering more places here that allow for me to develop a sense of peace in the middle of my wonderful-crazy life.