Monday, September 26, 2011

Tomorrow I leave for the wilds of California, first to visit my LA daughter (who said the all her friends 'adore' me-really?) and then to the Bay area to see daughter the older with Milo, the golden grandson and Shaun, the son-in-law, also golden. Finally to meet up with my sweetie at Spirit Rock for a six day silent retreat. O you who read my blog know that I am a regular retreat-goer. It resets my mental/emotional/spiritual muscles to be in silence, the longer the better. I was gone for most of July on retreat this year. Already thinking about 2012, travel and retreat adventures that I can a) afford b) be gone from my midwifery practice for a while without total collapse of my fellow midwives.

Speaking of which, Anne, the new midwife from Florida is HERE, hooray, hoorah! She's taking the licensing exam as we speak. As soon as we get our ducks? babies? jelly beans? in a row, she'll be able to see clients and go to births. Thank gawd and all the leetle birdies in the sky.

We met yesterday for several hours. I fed her homemade apple sauce and we talked about the state of the world. I think it's gonna work out fine. And my sister's name in Anne AND her sister's name is Beth {{{shiver}}}

Anyway, she sold everything and moved across the country. Whew! I hope she continues to like our climate...otherwise, we'll have to send her off to Mexico regularly for some heat. Or East of the mountains, a truly beautiful and terrible place, home of the mighty Columbia.

All I did this summer is look at Mt Rainier. Sigh. I didn't hike there even once. For shame. I did, however, swim in Lake Washington over the weekend.

It's raining, the most beautiful sound. I planted bulbs and many plants over the weekend. They are enjoying this weather. I love rain and gloom and sweaters and rainboots. And then it becomes TOO MUCH and we get loony.

4 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

I am glad you seek (and find) balance.
Not just for you, but for your mamas.

Wendy Birdseye Pavlus said...

My daughter in law is from Everett and she grew up there. She has since moved from there to Hilton Head, SC, Virginia Beach, Va and now onto the desert in CA (Lemoore Naval Air Station) with her Navy husband, my son Ryan ( My precious 2 yr old who climbed into bed with me and a brand new Jordan when you midwifed at my house-still one of my most prized pictures and what I think a lot of what home birth is about). Although she thinks where she is stationed right now is "Hell",she thought Seattle was the "Prozac capitol of the world" due to the weather. Her mother and father live there and after living in Va Beach for 5 yrs and moving back to Seattle her mom had to get out of there and go down to stay with them in the desert just to get some sun! She said that the first two months of summer in Seattle were awful and she couldn't take it anymore. If you need to send your FL midwife somewhere? It NEVER rains and is sunny every day in Lemoore ('course you can't breathe the air or drink the water, but that's another post......

Laura Gamache said...

East of the Cascades, "that beautiful terrible place"!!! Will be there this weekend. xo

Marylinn Kelly said...

I hope your California visit is treating you well...our weather has been undulating...if you were in LA Tuesday, you got the heat burst. Fog but no rain but maybe soon, rare for us. There is such restoration in silence. Even in my daily life, I am able to find a good bit of it. It has been a long while since I was on retreat, but one can feel the pull. xo