camino de cielo

It's great to be back here after a three years' absence. In fact, I'm getting to the age where it's great to be anywhere, especially one of the few places on earth where I actually would want to live.

Compared to a somewhat cramped one-bedroom whose front door opens to a hallway on Greenwood Ave North in Seattle, with heavy traffic rushing by at all hours, this is the lap of luxury and an exceedingly tranquil place.

We're deep in the forest here, so it's both colder and wetter than in the city, which is a mere 25 miles away. I always tell people I live in the upper-left corner of the US, and being right here puts you farther up and more to the left than in Seattle, which makes us more upper leftish than most anyone, except the folks out in Sequim and PA and the Makah Indians out there at Cape Alava.

I first moved in here exactly four years ago. Mom was still alive and it was still her place, and stuffed full with almost 90 years of accumulated books, papers, phonograph records, dishes, and miscellaneous objects, some value, but mostly with no value except the sentimental kind. It's all gone now, and the spirit of the house is changed completely, its karmic weight much less dense now.

I'm looking at this point to simplify my life even further, to off-load more possessions and to reduce the amount of mental baggage that slows me down and prevents progress as well. I expect it to be a slow and pleasant process.