Berlin October 2013 Slowly I'm returning to normal. Or what passes for my normal. Like others, I'm reviewing the old year and planning for the new one.
The year was full of creative firsts/continuations: slide show, short video, online art class participation. More photo classes, altered books, travel journals, book notes.
Lots of traveling: the tail end of the Paris trip, my first cruise - to Mexico, then Chicago, Berlin and Israel - all first times.
My goals are to post less, write more but mostly offline. My posts will be photos twice a week and my writing is an ebook about my travels and the pilgrimage or quest that I've started on.
I've got some traveling on the calendar but mostly I'm staying home and working on creative stuff. I'll take photo jaunts around town on my own to shoot what I want. I realized that when you travel with someone, you're really just trying to capture snapshots. So I might try taking only the point&shoot and cell phone and save the DSLR for when I can concentrate and move at my own pace.
And I've decided to stay in the LA area. What load off my mind that decision was. And it came in a flash though it's been simmering for awhile. I was walking on the beach last week near Malibu. Your typical gorgeous California December day. And I thought, it doesn't get much better than this. Boom. So why move? I hate the heat but then I thought, quite healthily I might add, that it isn't hot half the year, so why not concentrate on the cooler months. Duh. Why only think of the 100+ temperatures? There are only a few synagogues like mine in the whole country - engaging rabbis, thoughtful lectures, cultural activities, social justice efforts, and after 5 years, I really like it there and have made more friends. Why move? I love mountains and we have some of the best. Why move? We have our own wine country not too far away in Santa Barbara and the Central Coast. Why move? I have great friends that I wouldn't have to leave behind if I stayed. Why move? Well, the traffic still sucks and our house is too big so we could still consider downsizing and moving 'closer in', as they say. Those are the reasons to move. Yeah, I wanted a walkable city but there's something to be said about driving to the market to shop.
And I realized that traveling wasn't going to answer my questions. Double Duh! It's so cliched but I realized that I had everything I needed at home. Not that I won't go to New York or Paris again. But the desperate need is gone.
Whew. Not a bad way to start 2014. You work at it for enough decades, you start to get it together.
The year was full of creative firsts/continuations: slide show, short video, online art class participation. More photo classes, altered books, travel journals, book notes.
Lots of traveling: the tail end of the Paris trip, my first cruise - to Mexico, then Chicago, Berlin and Israel - all first times.
My goals are to post less, write more but mostly offline. My posts will be photos twice a week and my writing is an ebook about my travels and the pilgrimage or quest that I've started on.
I've got some traveling on the calendar but mostly I'm staying home and working on creative stuff. I'll take photo jaunts around town on my own to shoot what I want. I realized that when you travel with someone, you're really just trying to capture snapshots. So I might try taking only the point&shoot and cell phone and save the DSLR for when I can concentrate and move at my own pace.
And I've decided to stay in the LA area. What load off my mind that decision was. And it came in a flash though it's been simmering for awhile. I was walking on the beach last week near Malibu. Your typical gorgeous California December day. And I thought, it doesn't get much better than this. Boom. So why move? I hate the heat but then I thought, quite healthily I might add, that it isn't hot half the year, so why not concentrate on the cooler months. Duh. Why only think of the 100+ temperatures? There are only a few synagogues like mine in the whole country - engaging rabbis, thoughtful lectures, cultural activities, social justice efforts, and after 5 years, I really like it there and have made more friends. Why move? I love mountains and we have some of the best. Why move? We have our own wine country not too far away in Santa Barbara and the Central Coast. Why move? I have great friends that I wouldn't have to leave behind if I stayed. Why move? Well, the traffic still sucks and our house is too big so we could still consider downsizing and moving 'closer in', as they say. Those are the reasons to move. Yeah, I wanted a walkable city but there's something to be said about driving to the market to shop.
And I realized that traveling wasn't going to answer my questions. Double Duh! It's so cliched but I realized that I had everything I needed at home. Not that I won't go to New York or Paris again. But the desperate need is gone.
Whew. Not a bad way to start 2014. You work at it for enough decades, you start to get it together.
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