Another case of synchronicity: where I'm going in August

When I was in college in California in the 60s, my parents lived on Oahu. I spent a couple of summers there. I acted in a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals in the community of Kailua. That was where I met Jenean, a local girl also in the cast. She was 16 and I was 19 and we became good friends, sharing laughs and dreams and "deep conversations". Years later I lost my address book in one of my moves, and Jenean's information was among the missing. Two years ago, while vacationing on Hawaii, I suddenly remembered the unusual spelling of Jenean's name. I looked her up on Facebook. She now lives in the Bay Area and works for Facebook! We had a long FB conversation and decided to get together when she traveled to Tacoma, where her mother currently lives. So far, that hasn't happened.

Several years ago I hosted a couchsurfer named Stacey, who lives in Fairfield, Iowa. Stacey was traveling up the West Coast looking for venues to display her artwork. My husband Art was out of town, so Stacey and I spent a couple of evenings talking at our dining room table. A year or so later, Art and I took a road trip to Iowa and Stacey hosted us in her beautiful off-the-grid place. We became Facebook friends soon after.

Last September Art and I took a trip to Eastern Europe. Our travel plans happened to intersect, in Budapest and Salzburg, with many refugees from Syria and other countries. You can read about those encounters here:

http://bagladyinwaiting.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-story-at-budapest-train-station.html
http://bagladyinwaiting.blogspot.com/2015/09/at-salzburg-train-station-what-happened.html

When we got back, I couldn't get those refugees out of my mind. I wondered if I was supposed to help refugees in some way, whether as a mediator or otherwise. When we were in Tucson I looked for opportunities to help Mexican immigrants, but didn't find any that were a good fit.

At the same time, Stacey was posting about her experiences working as a volunteer in Lesvos, Greece. Stacey is a second-generation Greek-American so I'm pretty sure that's why she was there.

So. One evening last weekend I was on Facebook and I noticed that Jenean was online. I asked her what was up and she said, "I've just finished making my travel arrangements for a weeklong trip to Lesvos, Greece in August. I feel like I'm being called to help there as a volunteer."

I remembered the refugees I'd seen. Without my usual thoughtful caution I said, "Can I go with you?" Jenean said yes, that I was the only one she had told who had asked if they could go.

I asked Jenean where she was planning on volunteering. I know the refugee situation in Greece is pretty fluid, and I wanted to be reasonably certain we wouldn't just be turning up on Lesvos hoping to find some refugees to help. Jenean said she'd heard from a friend about an organization there called "Dirty Girls", where volunteers are washing the clothes and blankets of the arriving refugees. She thought that would be a good place to start inquiring. I suggested she friend Stacey on Facebook. Within five minutes, the two of them were friends.

I found the Dirty Girls Facebook page. And scrolling down, who should I see smiling from the page but my friend Stacey!

Good grief!

I messaged Stacey and told her what Jenean and I had in mind. I asked how we could volunteer. Stacey suggested I friend Alison, the founder of Dirty Girls. So I did.

My plan is to meet Jenean in Paris and fly on to Athens and then Lesvos. We'll have a car and a comfortable place to sleep at night. We'll be there for a little less than a week. It will be hot and humid - my least favorite kind of weather - but I can do anything for a short time. Besides, the refugees have no choice.

This is about the least-planned trip I've ever taken. I guess I'm learning to trust the process.

I guess Jenean and I will have plenty of time to catch up!

Synchronicity usually means I'm supposed to learn and grow. So, once again, I'll say yes.

Up in the air

That's where I am now, literally. Due east of Redding, California and due south of Boise, Idaho. Left home in Tucson this morning and going home to Seattle this afternoon.

Someone asked me last week, "Which home do you like best?" I answered right away. "We love them both."

In each place we have a place we love and people we love. Friends and activities. Twelve-step meetings.

And the Internet. For finding out what's going on in the world and at the home we're not at. For staying in touch in real time. For online ordering of what we need, which will be waiting for us at our appropriate address. For streaming Netflix and reading blogs and texting. For taking online classes. For playing Candy Crush (I'm now on level 1526, which is synched among my phone, laptop and Kindle).

In Tucson, we have blue skies and sunshine most days. In Brier we have beautiful green and a fruit and vegetable garden. In Tucson we have doves and in Brier we have crows. In Tucson, we have friends. In Brier we have friends and family. It's flat in Tucson and hilly in Brier.

We have Larisa the Designer Cat in both places. Wonderful food (Art's the shopper and the cook) in both places.  A comfortable bed in both places.

We're ready to go home. It's warming up a bit in Tucson, and the rain is lightening up in Brier. We found the sweet spot!

Our time in Tucson was rich and rewarding. I expect our time in Brier will be good. I am blessed.

What? I'm not bored?

It's been three weeks since most activities ended at our winter community in Tucson. Nearly all of the seasonal residents - including most of our friends - have left for home in places like Wisconsin, Washington, Michigan and Oregon.

So why are we still here?

• We want to stay in Arizona long enough to avoid most of the seasonal rain in Washington. But we don't want to broil while we're waiting. We figured April 20 - a week from tomorrow - would be a reasonable day to leave. The weather is still pleasant here; the thermometer has hit 90 degrees only once, and that was last month. Alaska Airlines is picking us up next Wednesday at the airport, and we'll land at our home airport - SeaTac - about three hours later.
• Off season is quite different, with lots of quiet and little traffic. Fewer voices on the street, fewer cars in driveways, no waiting for a seat in the restaurant. Mostly I hear birds celebrating spring. I'm watching a pair of quails building a nest in a palm tree just off our deck and right at eye level. I hear occasional jets from the air force base, and trains on the dual tracks by the interstate. Nothing rushed, though, or very noisy. It's nice to be here in this quiet time.

And what are we doing?

• We had a few things we wanted to do around our little place this season, but we were both so busy with Oklahoma! - Art was in the cast and I was responsible for ticket sales - that we didn't have the time or energy to get to them. Now the shelving has been put up in the new shed and the old, falling-apart shed has been relieved of its storage responsibility and dismantled. We've moved a bookcase to the shed and agreed that next year we'll change out a few lamps in the Arizona room, move the recycle boxes to the laundry room and replace the TV table that came with our park model with something more functional and visually appealing. We'll buy a couple of silk plants to disguise the electrical cords.
• I've scheduled appointments at home for next week and beyond. Haircuts, massages, mediation workshops, lunches with Washington friends. 
• I'm looking at ways of modifying my exercise routines. I've been doing water exercise for three years, but I find it's not aerobic enough. I'll need to walk on the hills in our neighborhood at home or ride my bicycle. There is one water class, two days a week, that emphasizes balance and strength, and I'll probably continue to do that. We've made a decision to sign up for a Road Scholar program next year to walk portions of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. It will be in May or October - and I want to be fit enough to do that without being too tired or footsore in the evenings. 
• I'm writing. I now have enough blocks of time to work most days on my next book. So far it's called "Why We Travel: A Love Story." In the current quiet, my mind is opening back up to all our times away. The memories are clear and draw me back into this work. 
• We're reading. Magazines left over from last year. Brene Brown's book "Rising Strong" as I finish up her online course. "The Poet of Tolstoy Park", aloud to Art at night before we go to sleep. John Shelby Spong's latest book for my spiritual reading. And Art is reading mystery and espionage as Larisa the Designer Cat sleeps next to him on the back of the sofa.
• We're riding our bicycles in the park. 
• We're watching "The Americans" via Netflix DVD most evenings. We finished "House of Cards" and "The Good Wife". Last week we watched "Field of Dreams" again - one of my all-time favorites - and "The Intern". 

We have a lovely, quiet calm routine. Until next week. Then we'll be home, reentering the activities we love there.

Nope. I'm not bored!

End-of-season gratitudes

With two weeks left before we return to Seattle, I'm sitting here full of gratitude. Here's my list:

1. The outside is just beyond the screen door. I can hear doves and the Corinthian chimes on our deck. Most of the neighbors have left already. It is quiet. So quiet. No road noise, no voices. I get to sit here in all this peace.

2. The temperature hit 90 yesterday and I was okay with it. As a matter of fact, it was 86 inside and we never turned on the air conditioner. It was more pleasant to leave the doors open for the outside sounds. I am finally, finally becoming acclimatized to dry desert heat.

3. I got a massage this morning. I get to do that every week.

4. I met this afternoon with the director and the production coordinator for next year's Voyager Light Opera Company musical, "Anything Goes." We're working on the budget because I'm doing the production finances next year. It is very good to be useful in a project I love.

5. I got a text from my friend Marion. Her husband Mike broke his wrist playing pickleball last week. Marion drove the 1400 miles from here to Oregon. They arrived home today. She said, "I miss you already." Marion and I and our friend Pete started a new 12-step meeting here this year, for friends and families of people afflicted with addiction. We got to make a difference in our winter community.

6. My friend Tamara posted one of her usual thoughtful pieces so I know she and her husband Tim made it back to Wisconsin.

7. I watched "Field of Dreams" last night with my husband Art. It's one of my all-time favorites.

8. I get to have lunch today with my good friend Joan, a sister of my heart.

9.  People ask if we're glad to be going home. I say, "We love both our places." We feel so fortunate to be able to say that.

10. I read it was sunny in Seattle yesterday, so I think our garden will be ready to plant when we get home.

I am a fortunate woman.