As I braced myself for the 45 minute bus ride from SE Portland to St. John’s, I couldn’t help but think about my time in San Francisco only one year ago, a city that is characterized by hills and electric buses which sometimes appear to be climbing those hills at impossible angles. A couple weeks … Continue reading
When I moved back to Portland nine months ago in June 2011, I jumped face first back into my city. I adopted my mom’s old bike that she had used to traverse Portland from SE 20th and Main to Good Samaritan Hospital in the early 1980s. I saw it as my piece of history, reviving … Continue reading
“I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should … Continue reading
Returning to a city you used to inhabit after a few months away is akin to focusing a manual camera- a twisting of the lens that causes the world around you to expand and contract, blur and sharpen, until the truth of the scene is finally revealed. This striving to adjust to rhythms that were … Continue reading
The most prominent feature of the West Hills in Portland is, well, you guessed it, the hills! As remnants of the Tualatin Mountains which separate the Portland Basin on the east from the Tualatin Basin in the west, they primarily consist of basalt bedrock, piled high with volcanic rock and Portland Hills Silt; a rich … Continue reading
We’re all in transit, constantly moving- feet, bicycle, car, train, streetcar, bus, airplane, boat, freighter, wagon, stroller, piggyback, rickshaw, motorcycle, moped, scooter, horse- mostly with wheels. This is how we get around, find ourselves transported from place to place. And even when we are sitting in our chairs or laying down in our beds sleeping, we … Continue reading
I have been riding the bus a lot lately, experiencing the epitome of strangers merging and inhabiting the same place short of a rock concert. But the only catch is that there is not a famous performer sanding on stage up front- and you still have to pay (for me, I pay by far the … Continue reading
Here is the trail- laid out before us- Both on a map in our hands and running out from the souls of our shoes How do we choose to go? Skip, jump, saunter, frolic, run, stroll, hike? It was laid out by humans but built in the middle of someone else’s home How do we … Continue reading
Life transitions are surreal. They remind us that life is short but they also aid in compartmentalizing our lives. I have always been one to connect people and places in my life, trying to avoid stretching myself too thin and also to create community of all the people I love. At a time of transition, … Continue reading
in the midst 