Mar20
Posted on Mar 20 by Ruth Davis
Being a camp host has been on my Bucket List for as many years as I’ve been RV camping. The idea of staying in the same campground for a three month stint, greeting campers, talking with people from all over the world, putting in 20 hours a week in exchange for free rent and full hookups was a dream for me. And the bonus of driving around the campground in a golf cart took the dream over the edge. And so, in January I thought hey, this would be a perfect time in my life to apply for a host position for the summer. I perused the listings on the California State Parks website and narrowed my choices to two parks, one just 20 miles north of Cayucos at San Simeon State Beach, and the other, three hours south at McGrath State Beach in Ventura where I’ve camped many times. I met a Park Ranger when I was volunteering at the Morro Bay Bird Festival and asked if she would put in a good word for me with the...
Mar13
Posted on Mar 13 by Ruth Davis
I am teaching an online Mac Training class and, in addition to the live group classes, we have a private Facebook page where students can ask questions, share successes and post photos of their progress. After the first module about organizing files and folders, each student was asked to post a before and after photo of their Desktop on the Facebook page. One student wanted to be sure the photos wouldn’t post on her personal page for all of her friends to see, because she didn’t want them to see the before photo. It made me realize how, so often, we only want to show people our successes. And yet, when we reveal our struggles, our imperfections, our own vulnerability, people are able to connect, be vulnerable themselves, and see the possibility of growth. A very talented artist friend is taking her first oil painting class. She posts her works in progress on her Facebook page, even though she struggles with the curve of a neck or getting the eyes just right. By sharing her imperfect work, we are...
Mar06
Posted on Mar 6 by Ruth Davis
I’m spending the month of March in Phoenix. The impetus for the trip was to take care of a few clients that I didn’t get to finish with when I was in town in November. I was originally only going to stay for two weeks, but then I thought, hey, I’ll stay for my birthday, and then I can work with more clients. A few days before I was scheduled to leave Cayucos, I was regretting the whole thing. I was dreading the traffic of the big city and all of the driving I had committed to, visiting clients all over town. The weather reports showed the temperatures slowly rising and I remembered that one year on my birthday it was over 100°. I was getting cranky about the two day drive to Phoenix, and the jam-packed work schedule I had created and I was starting to resent the whole trip. The night before my departure, Laddy and I took our evening walk to the beach and I could feel tears welling up, thinking how much I was going...
Feb27
Posted on Feb 27 by Ruth Davis
Laddy and I haven’t walked on the beach in three days. When the tide is high, most of the hard-packed, easy-walking sand is under the rolling surf and so, instead, we walk along the street just above the beach, where million dollar homes with million dollar views line one side of the road and a sloping hill with utility poles lines the other. I call this the hawk walk or pole stroll, because we usually spot a hawk sitting on top of one of the poles. Sometimes we meet other dogs and their walkers, some mornings we wave to people on their way to work. Laddy has lots of grass and gopher holes to smell and I can see the ocean rolling below us all the way out to the horizon. Today, two hours before high tide, Laddy and I returned for a morning beach walk. Even though I’ve seen the ocean every day, standing inches from the surf with a 180° view of water and waves opened me up as if for the first time. My lungs felt...
Feb13
Posted on Feb 13 by Ruth Davis
You’d think that, as heart-centered as I am, I’d love the idea of Valentine’s Day. But actually, it’s never been a favorite for me. Maybe because it’s so Hallmark-y. Maybe because, if you’re not in the throes of a passionate, romantic relationship, you feel somehow less than, like you’re missing out. Maybe it goes back to when I was in fifth grade and someone left a dead goldfish in my desk next to all of the other Valentine’s cards. On the surface, Valentine’s Day is all about hearts and flowers, chocolates and stuffed animals. But if we look deeper, the real heart of Valentine’s Day is about love. And so this year, I’m proclaiming this as a day to honor the love in our hearts, not just the loves in our lives. When we look inward, into our own hearts, love becomes an opportunity for self-awareness, self-care, self-inquiry. When we look into our hearts, we are inviting personal reflection. We begin to ask deeper questions, like, what is really important to us? What are we passionate about? What sparks...
Feb06
Posted on Feb 6 by Ruth Davis
A thick layer of fog fills the folds in the hills behind me, like blankets rolled up to keep out the draft. Morro Rock is gone from my view, though I know it is standing somewhere behind the stretch of gray that rises higher than the Los Osos hills. Across the creek, the fog settles over the buildings on Ocean Avenue like the puffy white clouds you see out of an airplane window and I can barely make out the shops and the cars parked on the street. Sounds are louder, while, at the same time, everything seems more still. I remember a time in my life when I felt like my whole world was engulfed in this kind of thick unseeing fog. It was unsettling, disorienting, anxiety producing. Because I was trying to move through it. I was desperately wanting to not to be in the uncomfortableness that I was feeling, the sense of being lost, the place of not knowing. But the more I tried to push through, the harder it was to see. Until I stopped...
