Laurie Johns Weblog

From September to January I walked to school. I walked 4.5 miles to school over a nice sized hill. Many of those days, I spent my best moments getting to school. I had been walking to school since the first day. My route took me past Landsdale Station and down a little lane of a street (San Anselmo Drive) before temporarily attending to the morning rush of traffic while crossing Sir Francis Drake to Butterfield which would take me past many moms, dads and kids on their way to school towards Fawn Drive, up and over Sleepy Hollow, arriving finally in Terra Linda and eventually to the Montessori school. By the time I arrived, I was usually ready to be there.

I maneuvered my way across Sir Francis Drake with the assistance of the charming crossing guard, Rosanne. You have conversations with the morning crossing guard when you are the only one waiting on most mornings for a very long light and when you take the walk every day. One day while we were standing and waiting for our green light, I noticed what a glorious spot Roseanne had; how the sun shown directly on her corner and I remarked on her view. She admitted it was “the envy of all crossingguards” and I felt a new admiration for her and the serious way she approached her task. I’ve never been interested in posts that require that you to be responsible for the lives of others–airline pilot, doctor, counselor, but crossing guard looked good to me that day, in the same way that mail delivery person looks like a fine occupation until it rains or snows or a big growling sharp-toothed dog appears.

Sleepy Hollow  preserve only spanned 10 of the 50-60 minutes it took to get to school. It wasn’t even the highlight and sometimes I even felt a tinge of envy for the people merely out walking their dogs and not going to work. By the time I reached Sleepy Hollow  my workplace lay only 15 minutes down the road.

One of the discoveries I made on these walks was the wonderfully eclectic details on the houses and in the gardens. Such a mixture of elements more finely crafted than I am used to seeing in similar neighborhoods in other towns of this size I have lived, exists.

I constructed my Halloween costume on those walks to school, collecting for two weeks all the bits of  plants that would make me a wood nymph. There was such a variety of species I had never seen. Some of the children remember the day I granted them an earth wish in my costume. I still tell them that was the real me and the one they see every day is just a partial version of myself.

Just before the beginning of the new year I considered changing my path to school. Someone suggested to me an alternate route with the promise of delivering me sooner into nature. Before truly considering this option, I began exploring the route on my days off because a change this radical needed testing. It is only when I considered changing my route to school that I began to feel a sense of nostalgia for my former (and it was still present) route. Considering a change made me aware of my attachment to those walks and how I had become accustomed to the routine.

Now I live in a different neighborhood and there is no convenient way to walk to school, but I think about Roseanne,  the vegetation, the deer, the grapevines, the weather, the smells and the part of myself that lives in all those things.

Sausalito

I’ve been in the new place in San Rafael for 09 days. I like organizing for more mobilility. You have to purge and pause and wonder how you managed to collect things in so little time. I wonder if any one will notice the things I left behind placed throughout the house and garden. I visited Morton Lane today to pick up my mail and peeked in Beth’s (my former) room. She had painted it freshly and moved some things around. She kept the apron to my Halloween costume I pinned up on the window above the bed. I liked that.  Her space had a sense of earthiness and I liked that too.

For the next 7 weeks I’m staying with a co-worker in a lovely craftsman style house in San Rafael. I have to find new places to visit and new ways to make adventure. Just walking out the door with Ellen in the old neighborhood was an adventure. The walks near the house where I am staying in Gerstle Park are similar to the walks in San Anselmo. I guess once you get up in the hills, the demographic is the same and the vegetation certainly is. From the hills near here, you get a view of San Rafael. Night walks are nice; the town glows in the distance below. Ah California, ah Marin. Such a gift I am frequently grateful for.

I need more time to figure out my plan, but things are starting to come together. School is less of a struggle and I am becoming aquainted with two people through yoga. I sense the forging of new friendships.  I sense the importance of being and staying connected. We are going to need each other to do the work. Song and dance would be nice too.

Caleb and I have plans to work in the gardens in Vermillion and to do some grouting and painting and whatever else needs tending while I am there. I would also like to re-paint the dining room and furnish two rooms to be rented. We plan to discuss ways to make the downstairs bathroom more a communal space. I want to take some things out of the house and to re-locate some things. I can imagine my house here, or maybe just me living in it; the best of both worlds. I will be home during July, but plan to drive back to California at the end of the month. More than that I cannot really say for it equals only speculation. Trust that things are getting juicy. Plans are getting ripe.

I cut my hair again and it seems just right though I identify strongly also with the longer haired version of myself. Myrtle told me that some little pearl earrings would go great with my hair and she was spot on! She is five. I’ve been listening to kids more and laughing a bit more too. I want to write a grant to bring a yurt to our school in Terra Linda and I think I can get a committee to support and help me. I have lots of good ideas, but sometimes fear being as good as I can at something. Maybe its universal that we are not our potential. That’s why is called potential. Once you arrive, its called something else or maybe it has no name as it exists in a realm beyond words. I dont want to go there quite yet. I like being on earth…in fact, I dig it!