BootsnAll Travel Network
Add this blog to: MyYahoo, Google, Bloglines, RSS


Archive for the 'Where to plant myself' Category

« Previous Page — « Previous Entries
Next Entries » — Next Page »
« Home

Upaya 5th day: cooling off

Monday, July 30th, 2007

OK, it’s my fifth day, and the toilet thing and the vacuuming thing and the dishwashing thing are getting a little tiresome. So far, it’s like Rebecca said: sit, eat, work, rest. The emphasis is on the work. One retreat finished today, and the next begins the day I leave. So maybe, for the next two days, I will get a different sense of what it is to be here. Roshi is here. I haven’t seen her, but they say she’s here. Wednesday, the day before I leave, she’s set to give a dharma talk. At the moment I can’t see how being here is any different from being a laborer at a fancy summer camp for rich adults. There are moments when my neurosis links with someone else’s neurosis and we have interesting developments. [read on]

Posted in Buddhism, New Mexico, Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

New Mexico and the Selling of Georgia O’Keeffe

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

It’s 8:30 a.m. and I’m in Albuquerque at the Howard Johnson’s, waiting for Diane to arrive. We’ll go to breakfast, and then she’ll drive me to Upaya. So far my trip has been airports, expressways, and this generic motel, though I had good talk with Diane in the motel room last night, and this morning when I woke at 5:30 a.m. local time, I stood at the motel window and saw to my right a smear of mauve sunrise and a hill, black against a pale sky; to my left, the expressway. The hotel “guide” (info on room service, pool hours, etc.) has an O’Keeffe painting on the cover. Lying on the table next to the TV is a copy of New Mexico Magazine for July 2007, with a black and white cover shot of Georgia O’Keeffe at about 35. Inside there’s an article about the 10th Anniversary of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. In the lobby of the motel there’s a Georgia O’Keeffe poster. A big flower. There’s another one in the elevator. [read on]

Posted in New Mexico, Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

Travel Magic

Tuesday, July 24th, 2007

I’m still at home, rocking back and forth and biting my thumbs in anticipation, leaving tomorrow if tomorrow will ever come. Basho has decided to nest in my open carryon bag, perhaps imagining that by anchoring the bag with his body, he can keep me from going anywhere. Cats hate change. And he doesn’t even know what it means to spend nearly three weeks in a cattery–but he’ll start finding out tomorrow. Manko spent the day with me today, and I delivered her to several places where she applied for a job. And there was a last-minute change in one piece of my travel plan as a result of a stunning bit of timing. Travel magic has already started. [read on]

Posted in Buddhism, Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

Packing up, moving out

Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

I’m humming “leavin’ on a jet plane.” Some of you may recognize the allusion. (The remaining lyrics to that song have never held any meaning for me, but I’ve hummed that refrain to myself for so many years it’s almost a theme song; that, Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on the Wire,” and Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” I love these leaving-town, heading-into-the-sunset songs.) So here’s the deal: I’m packing my sleeping bag and my carry-on, putting my toiletries in a clear plastic baggie for Michael Chertoff’s benefit, and heading west on Southwest Airlines. [read on]

Posted in Buddhism, Preparation, Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

Friday the 13th, Boogie on down

Friday, July 13th, 2007

Ah, beautiful. I have now been in my new home for a whole week, and it is feeling less “new.” It is only 82 degrees F in Houston at 9:30 in the morning, so I have not yet turned on the air conditioner. The windows are open, and I hear the rustle of oak leaves and the whish of pine needles. Another good friend has said she, too, is hoping to retire in Portland. For the moment I am not reporting for work, not grading papers, enjoying myself in a “constant state of enquiry and mild excitement,” as Stephen says to describe his state of mind when he’s painting. Literally and metaphorically, I’m dancing a kind of boogie of joy to be alive and still actively creating my life. Oh yes! [read on]

Posted in Texas, Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

Decisions, decisions

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

I whoop with pleasure, reading the travel blogs of thirty-somethings out exploring the world alone (see My Links on the right sidebar), and sometimes I feel a little weird going on with this blog when, until July 25, my travels are interior. That is, I am nattering and figuring, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing lists of figures till I feel like I’m nothing but a jumble of numbers myself. Nobody ever told me that “retirement” involves making a HEAP of really BIG decisions about things (like money) I know nothing in the world about. I might also add that this process is gawdawful boring and therefore I am not (what a relief) going to chronicle it here. But that explains why I’ve been quiet the last few days. I’ve been doing THAT. What I can blog about, for those who want to know, is the fact that Manko and Kendra finally got paid; and the more I learn about Portland, Oregon, the better it seems. [read on]

Posted in Texas, Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

Portland: what’s not to love?

Sunday, July 1st, 2007

Since I started dreaming of moving to Portland, Oregon and settling into a little studio apartment of my own, with Basho, and connecting with the local Zen center there as a “lay practitioner,” I’ve received heaps of emails and several phone calls from friends saying, “Oh yes! Much better plan!” It turns out my idea of living in a Zen center was a source of nattering worry to those who care about me but are kind enough to hold their tongues and let me do whatever the hell it is that I’m going to do. This is not to say that I won’t still do the worrying thing. Green Gulch Farm is probably the single most beautiful place in this country. Upaya Zen Center also occupies some gorgeous land and does good work. I’m still going spend a week at each of those centers, doing whatever they ask me to do. But this Portland idea is growing on me. [read on]

Posted in Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

Portland, here I come!

Friday, June 29th, 2007

I remain fascinated by the possibility of moving to Portland, Oregon either AFTER a spell of living at a Zen center, or INSTEAD of living at a Zen center. There are three apartment complexes–well, be honest–old folks’ homes (you have to be 62 or older to be considered): run by an association of labor unions, in three different parts of Portland, Oregon. Those who know me well will be screaming NO! You’re not THAT old! But wait. Drop the stereotypes. These places offer nice little apartment-type living spaces (all utilities included) for 1/3 of whatever a person’s monthly income is, with preference given to low income people. I love the politics of that. This could be very good. Fuddy-duddy old rich people would be screened out. Progressive labor union types, rabble-rousers and old hippies could be in. Of course I need to take a look. It’s a shock to my system to think about this option, but it might be the best thing out there. [read on]

Posted in Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

Leaving Paradise

Sunday, April 29th, 2007

A good friend who has daughters aged 30 and 23 is visiting for the weekend. She sits with me in my concern that my daughter doesn’t seem ready to take control of her life yet. This daughter, my fourth and last child, is 21 but dropped out of college and is working for a minimum-wage employer that never gives her more than 30 hours a week of work. She has not, so far, been able to find any other kind of job. Just this week, wrapping up my World Lit class, I taught the conclusion to Milton’s Paradise Lost and asked my room full of 24 college students, “When do you think it’s time for a person to leave home, get their own apartment, let their parents move on in their lives?” Their answers were revealing. [read on]

Posted in Buddhism, Manko, Where to plant myself | 4 Comments »

Mary Rose Meets Thay

Monday, April 16th, 2007

Continuing my reading of Mary Rose O’Reilley’s The Barn at the End of the World, it seems to me that the radiant core of the book is this meeting she had with “Thay,” Thich Nhat Hanh, the head teacher at Plum Village, and the author of several books that have shaped me, including Being Peace . [read on]

Posted in Books and Movies, Buddhism, What does it mean?, Where to plant myself | 1 Comment »

« Previous Page — « Previous Entries
Next Entries » — Next Page »