Lucky Part Two

*Originally posted on my Wordpress blog 06.09.2021 

I’ve been thinking a lot about how lucky I have been in life. The blog post from the other day focused on several gifts to me from the Universe that have proven to be invaluable. That post felt like the obvious tip of the gratitude iceberg. Those items stand out because they have influenced so much else in my life. Their presence made possible other gifts that I want to think about today. There’s no order to any of these. How could there be? They are all interconnected. Interesting idea. My original plan was simply to write that one blog post but that morphed into two posts. Now I have discovered that even two posts won’t provide enough words and attention to do justice to the topic. So, ever adaptable, I am now expanding this into a three part series. I have been that fortunate in life and my head is  bowed  in thanksgiving.

I am grateful to call myself a reader.  It’s what you did in my family growing up. Books were treasures and there are lots of them in the house. Regular trips to the library were part of what it meant to grow up in my house.  I enjoyed biographies a lot as a kid, imagining all these interesting people and getting a look at their lives. Non fiction, in general was interesting to me and my weekly library haul always included some random non fiction books. My fiction interests as a child leaned more towards mysteries (Hardy Boys, anyone?) and historical fiction, although I liked the classics (recommended to me by the librarian and/or my parents or brothers).  I was also drawn to  family sagas and stories of kids making it though hardship. I have never lost that passion for reading and still today, in any given week, I have ten to twenty books on my hold list at the library.  I read as an escape. I read to locate myself, to find myself. I read to understand the world and to ask questions of the world. I read to be inspired and I read to feel alive. I connect with characters and I reflect on their experiences. Sometimes when the “real world” is just too much, the world of books gives me exactly what I need. I connect with words and words can make me dig deeper and experience more. I am thankful that I grew up in a family with strong reading roots.

Although I cannot claim to be a musician or an artist, I am so thankful for the presence of art and music in my life.  Money was tight growing up but still my parents valued music. We had a piano which they both played from time to time and they would also sing when the mood struck them.  Music lessons were widely available in CA public schools at that time but I didn’t go to a public school. My parents paid tuition at the Catholic school and private piano lessons were just too expensive. But, we had a record player and a collection of records that leaned toward classical music and show tunes and I got a lot of exposure to those.  I was also lucky to have older brothers who indoctrinated me into the music of the 60’s and 70’s. The boys had those little transistor radios and, eventually, they took to buying albums. Music remains a valuable tool for relaxing. It is also one of the best ways for me to power through housework or a challenging bicycle ride.  I will add that I appreciate the pauses between music and life. I like the sound of silence and do not like music in the background at all times. But, at the right time? Life goes better with music.

As for art, again, the Catholic schools I attended did not value art in the classroom. There was no art instruction and little opportunity for art in elementary school. In high school, I was in an academic track and that excluded any art elective. I wanted to paint and was delighted when my artist uncle, who lived with us for awhile, gifted me with oil paints and canvases that he needed to jettison. He also showed me some painting strategies but mostly, he gave me encouragement. I remember considering art as a college major but, oddly, discarded that idea because I had had no art in high school. I assumed, then,  I would not be successful in college classes. What did I think college was for? In the end, I have pursued art my own way. I have taken classes and I have experimented on my own. I like the process of creating art and sometimes I even like the product. There’s just something exciting about putting my soul out there on a canvas and I am grateful that I have had that opportunity. 

And speaking of opportunity, I am so appreciative of the opportunities to travel that have come my way. As a kid, travel came via camping excursions, primarily to nature locales in California and in Baja California. Most summers, my parents took us to Ensenada for a week or two of camping on the Mexican coast. We had a chance to be part of a whole different world during that time. When I was in my 20’s, I spent time in South Korea and  Colombia. I also was of that generation who hitchhiked in Europe for a spell. Additionally, I was a road tripper in this country.  I camped my way several times up along the West Coast into British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.  I embarked with a boyfriend on a road trip from California to the Atlantic Ocean. The beater Chevy Vega that we were driving blew a rod on the river in North Platte, Nebraska and so we camped there for five days while repairs were made. No time left to get to the Atlantic but we adjusted our plans and spent time in the Rocky Mountains instead.

When we had kids living at home, we made summer plans. I have a brother who lives in Hawaii so we took several family trips to visit with his family and explore the Big Island. We also took the kids up to Canada several times. Once we flew but other times we drove so that the kids got an up close look and feel for the Northwest.  As part of my work, I was invited to accompany district 8th graders on an optional trip to Washington DC. I did that six times over seven years and LOVED every excursion. The 8th graders were great, the other tour chaperones were fun, and I got to see so many cool things in DC. Those trips set in play a newly discovered interest in traveling to big cities. Over the subsequent years I have been to Boston , Chicago, NYC (four times), Seattle, Portland, and Dublin, Ireland. Additionally I have enjoyed quieter places like Santa Fe, Yellowstone, Southeastern Alaska, and Yosemite.  I know I am lucky to have had the resources to travel but I will add that I adjust my budget accordingly. I drive a 20 year old VW bug rather than an upscale SUV and I rarely dine out when I am not traveling so that I can funnel money into a travel account. 

I also know that I don’t have to travel far to experience outdoor beauty. I know that there are many magnificent spots on Planet Earth - so much beauty in this part of the universe and I happen to live in a region of immense natural splendor.  I can jump into my little car and be at the Pacific Ocean in twenty minutes. That is heaven on Earth to me. I can travel twenty minutes in a slightly different direction and walk among Redwood trees. I can take a three hour bike ride early on a Sunday morning and be dazzled by eye candy blue green colors with splashes of pink, yellow, red, periwinkle - you name the color and you’ll find a piece of it somewhere along my route.  I do enjoy visiting urban areas for what they have to offer me but I am most thankful for all the beauty and serenity that I can find so close to my home.  

I want to give just a nod here to something that is so obvious that it shouldn’t need to be said but I’m going to say it anyway. I am grateful for my relative wealth.  I have never been dollars and cents rich. I came from the working class. I had the advantages of education and a changing social construct that allowed me to work and parent and so I moved into the socio-economic middle class.  After I partnered with my spouse and we combined our financial resources, we were always able to meet our monthly bills. We were able to purchase a home together in California and we had jobs that came with health insurance. We have always budgeted our income and have been lucky to avoid financial disaster. So much of my relative wealth is because I was born into a certain time, place, and family. The only credit I can take for my relative wealth is that I made some responsible and lucky choices along the way.  I am, however,  grateful for the resources that I have been given.  

Clearly, I have much to be thankful for.   I don’t want these posts to get long and boring so I will write one more.  I need to acknowledge people (beyond my parents and siblings) who have mattered. I also want to offer tribute to  the intangibles of my life:  the Wisdom, Mystery, Awe, and Wonder that present themselves daily. How do you get through life without them?