a campfire and a can of beans

9:17 AM and the sun has fully bathed our large and expansive country while the coffee still warms and inspires me to consider what notions to provide you this first day of October.
I am not a revisionist, that's an important measure to put out there since I fear this posting will be rather common and not at all interesting. Will I keep my word or delete and edit judiciously later on? You can decide if you believe me when you do or don't see this posting change over time :-) Oh, and yes, I do believe in emoticons they have little souls like all of us and need to manifest on occasion to sparkle and smile in our linear words.

Writing has always been something I enjoy. It's a cathartic, engaging, exciting, and very exploratory session with oneself and sometimes with others. I am presently considering alternate careers including writing and it has been challenging to consider what I might offer the world or a potential client. As part of that exploration, I'm subjecting my words to this limited forum online for you humble (or not so) readers in hopes that my creativity grows and sort of bootstraps into something more substantial in time.

In late August I moved across the country from East to West (is there any other path?) and have thoroughly enjoyed my short time here in Northern California. It feels wonderfully like home, I love the smells of the eucalyptus tree, the ocean, the ever present bakeries, the crisp mornings and evenings and seemingly everpresent sense of opportunity in the air.

As for the vibe, the culture here seems much more open and receptive to new ideas or those more fringe related which marries well with my own disposition. In full disclosure I'm rather whitebread in appearance but can have some pretty interesting laughs triggered by the invisible randomness that most people don't see. I liken it to the little boy still trapped inside, well he's not really trapped because he comes out to play often and has an enormous appetite when he's been outside all day.

Yesterday I met a girl for coffee who has been here five years or so and still doesn't have a sense of place. While I hope she soon finds something to anchor her or makes her way back home, I think much of what she might be missing is the connection to environments -those human and those more feral. We all need that sense of grounding and its been a pursuit of mine for some time now. I feel very much at home here in California and look forward to putting some roots into the coastal soil and enjoying the new atmosphere and watching many suns set over the horizon as we spin off into new evenings and opportunities.
She and I also contemplated the differences between east and west mentalities and the one that resonates the most is the kindess here and seemingly lowered guard to what most of us call 'agendas' I do expect as humans most of us have some reason behind most of our actions this could be called an agenda but what I believe we were discussing is the constant need to receive some larger benefit for spending our energy, time, or other finite resources on another person or pursuit.


In the past few years, I've found some Buddhist thoughts rather comforting especially the notions of mindfulness and having no expectations. I'm not ready to embrace no expectations but do believe my scale of requirements for happiness and contentment are perhaps a bit more worn and nicely polished at this point. Hopefully I can get it down to the essentials to quote one of my favorite musicians Tom Waits:

"There's a lot of things in this world that you're gonna have no use for.And when you get blue, and you've lost all your dreams,there's nothing like a campfire and a can o' beans" -T.Waits "Lucky Day"

Thanks for reading this hope you stick around for later more interesting observations. I'm off to unleash the boy so he can find something in the unfolding day, beans, campfires or just a few smiles. Originally posted at 9:16 AM 10/01/2008