true living, thai, and tree-hugging

it's funny how much life can change in any given amount of time.

i arrived in san diego a little over a week ago now, and my whole world has revolved and evolved into the amazing existence i'm living now, centered around the little blue house at 3033 oliphant st, and the six lovely ladies that live here. reuniting with heidi, one of my oldest and dearest friends, has - of course - been richly rewarding, but i have unexpectedly entered into a deep and beautiful community which has, in so many ways, opened its arms to me in a way i never could have imagined.

the doors to the house are always open, and the cool ocean breeze sweeps through, carrying the ethno-indie music which always seems to be on throughout the entire house. the kitchen is open and wide, inviting excited conversation around bubbling pots of vegetarian goodness. motivated by social justice, solidarity, and sustainability, the lifestyles of the mighty little women of this new home have been hugely inspiring as i take time to dig down deep and reexamine my own choices and the power i have to create within myself a living witness to the values i have long proclaimed by mouth.

days previously filled with either the frustrating meaninglessness of lounging in the sun and hours of food network and discovery channel or the long hours of hospital shifts are now consumed by simple activities which leave me every day feeling more and more alive: painting; reading; cycling down to the pier, the coffee shop, or the beach; hiking through the glories that sounthern california's nature has to offer; and hopefully soon volunteering with the homeless women's ministry in downtown.

i can't remember a time in my past when i had this much freedom with my time and lived it with this degree of intentionality, and as i look forward to the future, which i have also been doing a lot of, i wonder if i'll ever have this luxury of unbelievably open summer days. but even as the foreshadows of anxiety regarding the overly dramatized "loss of youth and joy" that comes with graduation and my first real job or the year of difficult schooling that i first must overcome to even get to that place, i brush the dark tendrils away and realize that joy is not localized to a certain place or a certain group of people, but to a perspective and a life that is lived openly - something which translates to all situations although the trappings may change from place to place.

in the meantime - when i'm not philosophizing about life, because it really isn't the only thing i do despite the tendency of my blogging to be bent upon it - i'm content to enjoy the random moments that make life, life. like my impromptu thai lesson in the car today, when i changed the language on my friend's garmin, a gps direction-giver and way-finder. here is what i learned:

liang tsai = turn left
liang wa = turn right

or like the discussion that marte (one of the housemates) and i shared about the complexities of the label "organic" and the importance of "locally produced" in the quest for community sustainability as well as the general social justice implications of food and nutrition, courtesy of the book, animal, vegetable, miracle.

one can only hope that my amazing college roommates will be able to forgive me for returning to boston after a semester abroad and a summer in california as a "crazy hippie," but in the meantime, i'm loving san diego.

san diego here i come...

i'm sitting in a little coffee shop near my apartment once again - for the last time as far as i can see. but the feeling is bittersweet, unsurprsingly, as most transitions are.

in the past few weeks, i have fallen in love again with nursing. working full-time, one-on-one with great nurses in what will most likely soon rise to be the best hospital in the country (currently ranked 3rd), i awoke to that first passion that motivated me to choose nursing in the first place. the same one that had been stifled and squished almost into non-being by hours upon hours of oppressive lectures and a whole forest's worth of papers carefully explaining my nursing diagnoses and care plans, which i recently discovered, much my chagrin, you never really use in hospital nursing. i connected with countless patients, learned more than i can even describe, and most importantly discovered that i have something to contribute, bridging the gap between new-grad and seasoned nurse and charge nurse and doctors.

i interviewed and was accepted for a position and suddenly the reality of my impending independence and true adulthood has come crashing into my view. but i'm tacitly side-stepping these thoughts of total life overhaul and turning to san diego, displacing the swarming horde of what-ifs that for now at least are politely knocking at the edge of my mind.

on tap for my time near the border: decorating heidi's new space on less than a dime; volunteering with catholic charities; odd jobs around town; climbs and hikes in the nearby hills and parks; and hours upon hours of deep, soul-searching conversations. with all of the tumble of events that have blown my little life from here to there, i'm looking forward whole-heartedly to a few weeks of centered contemplation with a dear friend whose life journey has been inextricably woven into mine.

change is good...