Aug23
Posted on Aug 23 by Ruth Davis
For the past few weeks, Laddy and I have been walking a half mile from the RV Park to the street that runs parallel to the beach. We follow the street another half a mile until it dead ends at the dry Morro Creek, where we turn into a large dirt parking lot and follow a sandy trail down to the beach. I’ve watched people walk across planks over the dry creek and up to a dirt road on the other side and I wondered where the road led. But I was afraid it would be too far for me or Laddy to walk all the way from the RV. So this morning, the four of us got in Marika’s car and drove to the dirt parking lot and began our walk down into the creek bed, across the wooden planks and up onto the other side, heading south. Marika is a slower walker than me and she likes to bird while she walks, stopping often to scan the brush for sparrows and warblers. Mabel is happy to stop...
Aug22
Posted on Aug 22 by Ruth Davis
I am here. And my life is everything I have envisioned it would be for all of these months/years: My days are filled with lots of walking, cool, clean air, writing, working virtually with my Mac clients and delicious bounties from the local farmers markets. But the voices in my head keep asking NOW WHAT? At first, I felt the pressure to get on with things, to find a rental house, to re-create the life I left behind in Phoenix. But I realize the voices are not screaming, “NOW WHAT!! Hurry up, let’s move on to the next thing!” with demanding exclamation points. They are merely asking, with the pause of a comma, “Now, what?” What do I want to bring more of into my life? How do I want to connect and serve? What else would make me even more joyful, happy, glad to be here? And honestly, I don’t really know. Or rather, I haven’t taken the time to explore the question. But I have created this time and this space, so, in these next few days...
Aug19
Posted on Aug 19 by Ruth Davis
When I left Phoenix, Marika had no idea if or when she would come and visit. But after a few days of me being here and her still being in the relentless heat, she emailed me and said that she and Mabel were coming for a three week visit. They arrived yesterday. After a few tail wags and some butt sniffing, it was as if we’d been together all along. We’re all settling into sharing and moving in the space together, just like old times, with Mabel hogging every available sleeping place and Marika and I playing musical chairs between the various options. It was a clear blue day yesterday. Marika and I drove to the Strand where we used to always camp and watched pelicans divebombing for fish just a few hundred yards from the shoreline. Then we drove into town and walked along the Embarcadero and had mediocre salads with crab and prawns. In the evening the four of us walked on the beach and it was so fun to watch Mabel running, running, running… This morning...
Aug16
Posted on Aug 16 by Ruth Davis
Morning begins in fog, a thick gray layer of quiet that mutes the colors and the sounds. Fat drops of moisture hang on the thick grass at the park and everything is wet. We take our first walk before the sun rises behind the fog and the air is balmy and moist. But I put on a sweatshirt because I know that, as soon as the sun comes up, even if I can’t see it, it will turn chilly. Some days the gray moves out before noon, revealing the colors of ocean and sky, the horizon line, the enormity of Morro Rock. Other days I don’t see any blue in the sky and only the top of the rock appears between streaks of moving gray. This is summer on the coast. A far cry from summer in the Phoenix desert, where it doesn’t cool below 90°, not even in the middle of the night. Where it’s already 100° at noon, and sometimes as high as 115° by the peak of the day. And the temperatures are measured in the shade....
Aug15
Posted on Aug 15 by Ruth Davis
Luck is winning the lottery. Or making all the green lights. Or getting the perfect camping spot with an unobstructed ocean view. Living out a vision that you’ve been dreaming about for years is all about intention, effort and taking actions that may mean you give up one thing in order to get something else. But it has nothing to do with luck. When I tell people about my new lifestyle, that I’m living and working in my motorhome two blocks from the ocean, often their first response is, oh, you’re so lucky. Or worse, they respond with envy. I want to sit them down and tell how long I’ve been working for this dream, how much I’ve invested in my business to get it where it supports me virtually. I want to share some of the creative tools I’ve used to keep the dream alive. And I want to offer them hope and a starting place so that they, too, can begin manifesting their own biggest dreams. The first step might be to take the energy...
Aug14
Posted on Aug 14 by Ruth Davis
There is a philosophy in the healing arts community that our toes are great indicators of our deeper selves. The study of toe reading, or foot reading, explores the idea that each toe is connected to an emotion, an element and a chakra, and that the left toes have different meanings than the right. For years, I’ve had a thick callous on the outside edge of my right foot that needs regular trimming by a podiatrist. As I’ve been walking more, I’m noticing that, while my weight is evenly distributed front to back, left to right on my left foot, I walk with most of my weight on the outer edge of my right foot and not equally balanced between all of my toes. In fact, when I am acutely aware of my walking, my entire right ankle turns outward and my right big toe bears very little of the pressure of walking. And so I wondered what the big toe on my right foot represents in toe reading, that I might need to pay attention to. According...
