Clatsop and the Coast

Oregon Coast, USA

On my way to a Swiss Chics reunion at Lindsay's wedding, I explored Olympia and the Portland coast with two of my favorite people, Arwen and Karla.



On our way to Oregon, Arwen and I stopped to walk at the Nisqually nature reserve. The next day, when I spotted the sign for Fort Clatsop, I to mentioned that I'd adored Sacagawea in elementary school and read everything I could find about her, so we amended Karla's plan and went there first. Then we went to the coast.

Like Central Park, But Smaller

Wright Park, Tacoma, WA

From Tacoma

This beautiful park is just up the street from Arwen's house in Tacoma. It's a beautiful, rolling landscape of old trees, flower gardens and wide green lawn.

Apparently, the designer of the park chose the random placement of the trees across the park by spreading out a map of the space and scattering a handful of seeds across it, then putting a tree at each location. The tree species come from all across North America and Europe.

There's a lovely little lake, sculptures scattered around the lawn, and lots of families out with their kids.

Also, there were ducklings!

From Tacoma

Rainforest City

Tacoma, WA, USA

From Tacoma

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood...! I should have taken my good camera, not just my phone, but I managed to get a couple good shots on my after-school walk with my Peace Corps friend and excellent hostess, Arwen.

There were rhododendrons blooming everywhere, in impressive size and colors.

Wednesday, I'm looking forward to joining her in her classroom for early elementary students with autism.

Neighborhood Beautification

Brooklyn, NY, USA

Yesterday, I was trying to fathom why there was a legion of Bobcats in my street digging up chunks of sidewalk.

From Beautification

This morning, when I looked out my window, not only were they at it again, but it became clear why. Between these trees going in, and the bike racks appearing all over the neighborhood in the last couple months, you can see the City hard at work here in East Williamsburg.

I'm a little conflicted about this. I know that trees and bikes are good for the environment, that providing these amenities may bring people, like hipsters, to the neighborhood who sign petitions about sustainability and outdoor spaces. All of those are good things. On the other hand, it's one more sign of gentrification in my neighborhood that the city is now paying for all these things, and while the fact that I live here is probably also evidence of gentrification, it wasn't so obvious when I first moved in.

From Beautification

When I first walked this neighborhood, I felt like the only non-Spanish-speaking resident in a neighborhood of young immigrant families with small children. Even at the Chinese owned and operated Chinese restaurant down the street, they speak better Spanish than English. It's part of the charm of New York City for me. And while progress is inevitable and in this case, at least, bears some desirable fruit, it leaves me surprisingly ambivalent.

Also, impressed. It's noon, and they've already completed one whole side of the street!

Reunion, Elly-style

Cylburn Arboretum, Baltimore, MD

From Cylburn Arboretum

Why do I love Facebook? For one thing, when Elly puts out a suggestion that Goucher Grads might meet for a picnic at the Arboretum while I'm in town, I find myself dining on a mountain of fresh fruits and veggies with people I haven't talked to in years! (10 years, to be exact, that being the number of years since we graduated from Goucher....)

I'd been meaning to visit friends in Baltimore for months and never found the right weekend, so the reunion made the perfect excuse. And anyway, I'd been really bummed to miss the 5 year because I was graduating from Indiana U for my Masters.

Still adorable? Yep!

As it turned out, though, it was a reunion with more than just college friends. Elly happens to be dating my Prom date, who makes her ridiculously and very publicly happy, which is beautiful to see. He and I were in youth group together, but like any good YRUU, he fit right in with a group of Goucher Grads, with the same nerdiness, geekery and politics. It was really great to see him.

Next time, Baltimore and Baltimore friends, I won't let so much time go by! (In fact, I'll be back no later than Christmas for a Goucher Grad wedding!)

From Cylburn Arboretum

Waterside

Waterford Park
somewhere on the Baltimore-Annapolis Pike

From Waterford & Annapolis

As I was dutifully following my GPS onto I295 out of Baltimore, the first faded exit sign said 'Annapolis Road.' I had 2 hrs to get to my lunch date in Annapolis (a 45 min trip by Interstate), and I thought, 'I bet that goes to Annapolis, and I bet it's a lot prettier,' and I swerved onto the offramp.

I was right, and it was a much prettier ride. In another life, I want to go to Glen Burnie High School and teach at Anne Arundel Community College.

Along the way, I stumbled upon a little reservoir with a nature trail that was the Eagle Scout project of one (or most likely several) local Boy Scouts over the years. There were little footbridges, designated fishing areas, blazes for several different trails, and lots of new leaves and wildlife. I even nearly stepped on this guy, who graciously posed for a photo shoot anyway:

I wandered around for almost an hour, fussing with the macro functions on my camera, coaxing waterfowl into just the right angle, and marveling at the beauty in even the nasty little poison ivy plant.

It was a lovely interlude into nature, a great improvement on the interstate highway system, and a great opportunity to indulge my little fantasy that I'm an accomplished photographer, not just a hobby snapper.

Best of all, it ended in Annapolis harbor for lunch with a great old friend, who will be bringing me back to Baltimore later this year to attend her Christmas nuptials!

From Waterford & Annapolis

Memories of Flowers

Chadd's Ford, PA

From Chadd's Ford fields

It was a little after eleven when I picked up my rental car in Jersey City, and my gracious hostess Elly wasn't going to be home from work in Baltimore until 6:30, so I had time for the scenic route. In fact, my recent excursion out to the UU Congregation of Shelter Rock really highlighted the fact that I'd been cooped up in the city far too long and needed some country air.

So I hopped the PA Turnpike around Philly and dropped onto old US 1, aka the Boston Post Road, aka Lincoln Highway, aka the Baltimore Pike. Rte 1, for me, has a lot of the nostalgic overtones of Rte 66 for many Americans. This is in part because my mother went to the University of Maine in Fort Kent at the northern end of the highway, but also because some Pennsylvania and Maryland stretches of Rte 1 are as familiar to me as my own back yard. Unlike her sophisticated younger brother I-95, Rte 1 runs through instead of around most of the towns and cities along her journey, frequently slowing down for stoplights, more friendly to Amish buggies. Greener and more scenic, it was perfect for my escape from the big city.

As I approached Chadd's Ford, PA, I realized that I was entering one of those familiar historic stretches. First, I ran across Brandywine Battlefield Historic Site, wishing I had a picnic lunch to eat on the simple, expansive lawns. Then I spotted signs for Longwood Gardens. Visiting these expansive botanical gardens was a special treat growing up, reserved for Grandma and Grandpa's visits on their way between Massachusetts/ Maine and Florida. As I pulled into the parking lot, I thought, This is going to be far too expensive for my wallet! When I realized I could spend two hours photographing spring blossoms for about the price of a NYC brunch, I was committed! And it was totally worth it!

From Chadd's Ford fields

Cornel West: Whither America?

Unitarian Church of All Souls
Manhattan, NY, USA


We pulled out every chair in the building, and it was still standing-room only!

From Cornel West at All Souls

LDC (More) Like I Remember

Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock
Manhasset, NY, USA

From YA LDC @ Shelter Rock

With my family's busy schedule growing up, I didn't make it to many Cons in YRUU, though there was one amazing weekend at the beautiful Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis that may have changed me forever, and a singularly heartbreaking LDC (Leadership Development Conference) that embodies all the pathos that only a 16-year-old with an unrequited crush can understand....

Nevertheless, as I'm sure you can tell, the Cons that I did make it to had a profound effect on how I saw my religion/ spirituality and myself. To some degree, this is merely a reflection of being sixteen, when almost anything can be a fundamentally, spiritually life-altering experience imbued with life-long and global implications; I am only rarely affected that deeply and profoundly in my young adulthood. I've become more of a cynic, more likely to filter my experiences through rational, intellectual lenses that can steal some of their spiritual potency; or maybe I'm just more likely to deny and repress my deeper emotional responses.

I've been reflecting a lot on this since our last UU Young Adult retreat to Frost Valley, and I haven't been particularly comfortable with the conclusions I've reached. This weekend's Young Adult LDC, though, has lightened the load considerably.

No doubt this has a great deal to do with the wonderful people I gathered with at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, friends both silver and gold. The purpose for which we gathered, too, helped to focus us on the challenges of inclusive, sensitive leadership in a generation of young people intensely engaged in the pressing issues of white privilege, racial and economic injustice, the New Jim Crow, and gender and sexuality equality.

I was struck by the fact that although, as is usually the case in UU circles, as a white woman I was in the racial and gender majority, I was also surprisingly in the minority as a straight person, which put an interesting spin for me on discussions of majority/ minority and empowerment.

More than anything, I think I took away from this experience and many other conversations post-Frost Valley that I am not the only young UU adult looking for deeper spiritual and religious connection to my community, and certainly not the only UU looking for a deeper connection between my religious and social justice convictions. I've gained new energy, thanks to the Shelter Rock LDC, to pursue further opportunities for training and congregation on these issues of racial, gender, sexual and economic justice and how they might be effected by my Unitarian Universalist communities.

Of course, the stunning beauty of the Shelter Rock campus was also a balm to my frustrations!

Joy for the World

Unitarian Church of All Souls
Manhattan, NY, USA

From The Hub: Joy

At the behest and by the hard work of the young adults, All Souls has launched a new worship series, the Hub. Held one Sunday evening a month, it is a more intimate, candlelit service for all ages, with several short homilies instead of one long sermon. The music comes from the newer teal hymnal, with accompaniment by piano, guitar and audience percussion.

While All Souls is known as a more "traditional" or "Protestant-style" Unitarian church, the Hub incorporates what I grew up thinking of as quintessentially Unitarian Universalist "traditions," such as a chalice lighting with a reading, and candles of joy and concern. This service is also primarily lay-led, an important part of Unitarian Universalist tradition for me. I'm excited to have this additional diversity in the worship opportunities at All Souls!

From The Hub: Joy

Each service has a theme, and this month's theme was "Joy."

Snow!

Brooklyn, NY, USA

This is what I had the pleasure of seeing through my window today!

From Snow!

Of course, it's always more of a pleasure when I'm not the one clearing the sidewalk....

From Snow!

Mindful Hiking

Frost Valley YMCA
somewhere in the Catskills of New York

From Frost Valley Retreat

It was the perfect winter weekend for a retreat. The snow was fresh, the weather was crisp, the company was excellent....

Merrill, one of my fellow retreaters, leads these periodic Meditative Walks in the city, and she did the same for us at Frost Valley.

The idea of a meditative walk is to be truly present in your environment as you walk. Truly appreciative of what you can see, hear, smell, taste. Hardest of all, a meditative walk is a mostly silent walk.

It's surprisingly hard to walk with a group of people and not speak, not succumb to the pressure to fill the "silence" with chatter but instead really listen to that silence. It's a wonderful mental exercise, and surprisingly communal as an experience!

It gets you looking, too. Really looking at the play of light and shadow, and the surprising moments of color in the snow. Maybe it's easier with a camera, though sometimes I think the camera gets me so focused on the details that I fail to see the forest for the trees, as it were. In any case, it's a powerfully moving experience.

From Frost Valley Retreat

Leaving Maine in the Morning

My Parents' House
S. Bridgton, Maine, USA