E - Off course, out of plan and growing…

                                                                        (Camping at Smith Rock State Park)

Expanding my gratitude -

It’s been over a year since I landed in Eugene, and I still don’t have a home, at least it’s doesn’t feel that way.  I’ve found a place but not a home.  But before I get into the details of my house search, I want to talk about the most important aspect of this past year for me; gratitude.  Through the miracle of reduction and simplicity, my overall level of gratitude has expanded.  I have so much to be grateful for and paradoxically the less I have, the more I seem to have to be grateful for.  I can’t explain it but I can clearly feel it happening.  Perhaps it’s because that gratitude, like most things needs space to exist and when one’s life is full of stuff, there’s just not enough room for much gratitude.  So with palms pressed together and head bowed, I say thank you, thank you, thank you… for each and every breath, for a sunbeam, a spurious smile, the rain, the mountains, the sky, the oceans and more, so much more…

Back to the topic of searching for a home; I’m still in my apartment next to the river and as nice as that is, it’s not my home.  It doesn’t feel that way for one important reason; I can’t change it, at least not in any significant way.  I’m a builder, a modifier and a tinkerer by nature so not being able to modify, improve and change where I live feels too limiting to my constructionist sprit and makes my temporary abode, by definition, someone else’s house, not mine.

One thing I have been doing this past year, along with looking at a lot of houses for sale, is thinking about what I want in a home, what supports my life and the direction I want to go from here.  It’s been time well spent.  I’ve considered and reconsidered the house question a hundred times or more.  First and foremost is place.  I considered living north, south, east and west of here and every time I’ve come back to Eugene in my thinking.  It’s a very good place.  I love living in the country but that becomes either a solitary existence or a car-centric way of life.  Neither option sounds good to me.  I love the buzz of activity that happens in this vibrant midsized college town.  I also love hopping on my bike as zooming to; the theater, art galleries, a lecture, my favorite dining spots, my credit union, grocery store and The Dining Room, where I volunteer feeding homeless and impoverished folks.  I really like having the circle of my life defined by how far I can comfortably walk or bike.  That creates a very human structure and frame for my life.  The pattern of my life, which really is my life, is so much more important than the content.  I’m not saying that content is unimportant; it's just that content, with out context is meaningless.

Besides location and community, other important attributives of a home for me are; lots of natural light, not too big (cozy), open floor plan, a yard big enough for a garden and fire pit and room to build a woodshop or space suitable to use as a shop.  I am hoping for a place with some character that needs some fixing up so that I have plenty of opportunities to interact with my dwelling.

In the mean time, when I’ve not been house hunting, I’ve been exploring and playing in the Northwest.  I love this part of the county, it feels real and it’s so beautiful, it’s also all new to me and that’s glazed all my explorations with jewels of novelty.  In the past year I’ve explored the coast form Northern California to Washington State plus the mountains and high desert areas southeast and east of me.

 Just 60 miles west of Eugene the coast is vast and incredibly beautiful.

I spent a wonderful night sleeping and waking next to the ocean under the light of the full moon and next to a driftwood bonfire.

 The mountains are dramatic volcanic driven landscapes that start just fifty miles east of town.

 Just east of the mountains is the high desert and the incredible Smith Rock State Park.

 Smith Rock has amazing scenery as well as world class rock climbing.

 In the winter, the passes through the mountains are intense and beautiful.  You have to have tire chains to transit them then; it’s the law as well as being a very good idea.

 I discovered many wonderful murals in town and started bloging about them at “eugenemurals.blogspot.com”.  That’s proven to be a fun and rewarding experience.

 I crewed throughout the summer on a fine racing trimaran.

 I took a trip to northern California to see the redwoods.  It was a powerful experience to spend time in the company of living organisms that are over 2,000 years old.

On the way back from California I stopped at Crater Lake and witnessed the incredible blue of its waters, bluer that the mountain sky itself.

I volunteered doing bicycle valet parking for The Center for Appropriate Transport, a wonderful organization.

 We parked and looked after hundreds of bikes, dozens of baby carriages and even skateboards at local concerts and athletic events.

The Oregon Country Fair was a magical experience and the best run event of it’s kind that I‘ve ever attended.

One of the delightful and unexpected turns on this “long strange trip” of mine is re-connecting with woodworking.  I’ve always been a practical carpenter, getting things done as the need arises but now I have time to fully explore the art.  I started with a couple of Adirondack chairs.  There’s an abundance of beautiful and affordable wood in the Northwest that has been an inspiration.  I made the chair in the above photo with about $15 worth of spruce purchased from a local lumberyard.

My next project was a simple box that I use to expand my joinery vocabulary.  There are five different types of wood joints used in this project; hand cut dovetail, rabbit, dowel face joint, right angle dowel and miter.  I also took the opportunity to explore the craft of wood inlay, something I’ve always admired but never had the time to explore.   I used exotic hard woods for the inlays, first time I’ve ever worked with exotic wood.  I’m looking forward to working more with exotic woods.  I’m also thinking about a suitable shop space for such future explorations.

 Islands near the mouth of the Columbia River in Washington State.

 Occupy Eugene was an amazing experience.

 Reconnecting with rock climbing has been an unexpected delight.  Rock climbing is a young man’s sport.  At 58 years old, I had hoped but really didn’t know if I’d ever be able to climb again.  One of the many incredible things I have to be grateful for.   The above photo is of friend Yair at the local crag in Eugene; The Columns.

 This one is taken from the top of the Calahans about 75 miles southwest of Eugene.

                                                   (Yair rapping down from top of the Calahans)

So you can see it’s been a year full of new discoveries & adventure and despite my best efforts, it hasn’t produced a home yet.  I’ve been pondering the why of that, as I usually am successful at the important things I set out to do.  The flaccid real estate marked has crawled almost to a full stop as we approach the winter slow season.  Nerveless I still search the MLS sights every day with the bright hope of discovering my new home.