Thanksgiving 2016: Gratitude for it All

When the holiday season winds up as the year draws to a close, I love coming up with my Thanksgiving gratitude list each year.

This year, I'm first and foremost grateful and happy to be here. As in here on planet Earth, living what poet Mary Oliver calls my "one wild and precious life."  

The miracle and privilege of this was heightened for me last week when I was at the scene of a traffic fatality. About a week later, I'm starting to feel more normal again, my shot nerves finally calming down. 

A speeding car smashed into the corner of a bakeshop outside from where I sat enjoying tea with a friend. As the first responders told me, I was very lucky to not be seriously injured or worse. I did sustain some bumps, cuts, abrasions, and a little PTSD from being thrown and sprayed with shattered glass. But nothing serious. 

I'm also grateful for my favorite jacket, a trusty Mountain Hardwear alpine shell that protected me from tiny glass shards and transmission fluid (or battery acid?) sprayed over my backside, ruining the shell.

One of many good ski days in my favorite alpine shell.

I'm grateful for the forces of velocity and air pressure that caused me to be thrown down and forward, out of harm's way from the bigger glass shards that flew over me.

Doing the Pose - a silly moment in the shell.

I'm grateful for the kindness of strangers. Two young women in the bakeshop noticed me standing dazed and in shock, bleeding a bit, and took charge of me. Kat called and cancelled my scheduled medical appointment, and her friend visiting from California led me to a chair and had me sit down while talking calmly to me and checking for injuries before the medics arrived.

I'm grateful for the first responder firefighters, who really are as tall and handsome as they are on TV. But seriously, they charge into frightening and sometimes perilous situations with grace, strength, and their wits about them, to help others. Sorry, no photos of them, so here's a shot of a nice day in Seattle.

 

West Point Lighthouse.

I'm grateful for friends and family, who were concerned and supportive. 

And I'm especially grateful that the corner of the building where the car struck, just a couple feet from where I sat, was a strong, heavy concrete column instead of lesser-strength material.

"If that had been wood, it wouldn't have held against the force of the impact" said one of the first responders tending to me. 

And I'm saddened by the life that ended just outside from where I sat. This being Seattle—where before our explosive growth we used to joke "There's only a thousand real people in Seattle and they all know each other"—I was just two or three degrees of separation from the victim via a cousin. 

I know his family is mourning his death but is also very grateful for his life. He loved to sail, so this shot is for him boating off into the sunset.

So yes, I'm grateful for it all, for the whole enchilada. To be alive in this moment, sitting here in my cozy office trying to convey how profound and special it is to just be here. I can't say it more eloquently than Mary Oliver below:

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

—Mary Oliver

Wishing you and yours a lovely and blessed Thanksgiving and holiday season. And if you're not in the USA, I wish you a happy day, every day, anyway.

En route to Thanksgiving dinner on Bainbridge Island, 2015.

  Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.



 

Pacific Northwest Landscapes: Let's Enjoy and Help Protect

It sure has been a topsy-turvy week here in the USA. How are you holding up? Are you euphoric? Horrified?

We're definitely a country of deep divides in our values and politics. And we're also a country of vastly differing landscapes.  Even here in the Pacific Northwest, the difference between east and west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington is great, both politically and geographically.

Although I was born and raised west of the Cascades and have spent most of my life here, I've lived in New England, central California, and southern Illinois as well. I'm glad for my time soaking up different regions and cultures within my own country. I don't know if it helps me understand our divisions as much as appreciate the breadth and beauty of our land.

So today I'm just sharing random photos highlighting my beloved Pacific Northwest. No trying to figure out what just happened.

Well, I guess I do have an ulterior motive. 

One of my goals here at Pacific Northwest Seasons is to foster a desire to protect our natural resources, whether that be through volunteering to pull invasive weeds or letting our politicians know that we support environmental regulations that keep business and government from running rampant over valuable habitats and landscapes.

I hope you enjoy the photos. But I also hope you take action when you hear our elected officials make noise about circumventing or dismantling environmental regulations that assess development actions that could affect any landscape. Guiding this process is the important National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 

Perhaps that inconspicuous patch of marshy, weed-infested land is an intermittent wetland that harbors threatened insects or frogs only during certain times of the year. Without maintaining the environmental process through the NEPA, development could inadvertently destroy valuable habitats. 

I encourage you to let your representatives, from the state to federal level, know you think it's important to keep these regulations in place. They ensure the public is informed how proposed actions could affect the land and surrounding areas. They also ensure that alternatives are considered.

So let's get outside, get involved, get informed, and appreciate our beautiful country. And cherish these words from the late great American icon Woody Guthrie:

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.   
  

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.

Seattle Coffee Shop Culture: Community in a Cuppa

What does community mean to you?

Sure, there's the physical community in which you live. But in the human connection sense, community is the groups and places where we find camaraderie, companionship, and belonging. It's vital to thriving in this big, diverse, crazy world. It's important to our health and well-being, so say the experts.

Some find community online through social media, which has its limits without face to face interaction. Many still find it in their everyday work or school lives. But increasingly, for those of us who work in the "gig" economy or live alone, our local bakeshops, teahouses, and coffee shops are an important place for us, where we can go to be around and with others.

Personally, my life is enriched by connections and friendships I've made at several local spots in northwest Seattle. As an independent contractor, I don't go to a regular office every day; I mostly work at home. Sometimes in the heat of deadlines, I realize I literally haven't left my house in a couple days except to walk out to the mailbox. Cabin fever can set in if I don't get out and connect with people.

Besides the friendships I've made and interesting people I've met, these regular, casual gatherings are ongoing and evolving. Some regulars have been meeting up for years, and some have come and gone. New people join. It's fluid.

Miro Tea in Ballard

Here's my half-baked comparison:  The 7 a.m. coffee/tea/pastry most mornings at a few rotating spots in Greenwood and Ballard is the capital letter at the beginning of the sentence. Then there's the the comma during the mid-afternoon break at another couple spots in Greenwood.

Not all of the regulars are human.

I don't think it's a total coincidence that several of my community spots are cafes that don't have wifi but feature artisan-craftsman quality fare. At tiny, cozy Cafe Besalu, lines are often out the door for their exquisite pastries/coffee and seating is at a premium. (Earlybirds get the seats.)

 

Preserve & Gather owners Kayla Blincow (a Cafe Besalu alum) and Tess Smedley purposely don't have wifi to foster a more social environment.  Last spring Tess told me, "We want to create a place for people to gather, for community." Exactly! It's the kind of friendly place that has me bringing them extra herbs, flowers, and vegetables from my garden.

Preserve & Gather peanut butter chocolate oatmeal bars. Must share!

At Miro Tea in old Ballard, manager Emmy and her partner/barista Spenser and I share garden starts and recipes. When I'm in town on the weekends, I attend Sunday morning "Church of Tea" at Miro with several friends, going on over 6 years now.

So here's to neighborhood coffee shops, cafes, and bakeshops everywhere that provide a place for people to gather. In a big city, they cultivate community and can make you feel like you're in a much smaller town, where you know and recognize people.  In small towns, they can be a community gathering place where people meet who might otherwise live in greater isolation.

Maybe it's enough just to go and be greeted with community in a friendly smile.

Rachel Coyle of Coyle's Bakeshop in Greenwood, Seattle.

Kayla Blincow, co-owner of Preserve & Gather. (Apologies to co-owner Tess Smedley who wasn't in when I took this shot.)

How about you? Where do you find community? Do you have a coffee shop/cafe community? Would love to hear about yours in the comments below.

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.

When You Go
Above are links to most of my standout community spots:  Coyle's Bakeshop, Preserve & Gather, and Chocolati in Greenwood in north Seattle, Cafe Besalu  and Miro Tea in Ballard, Seattle. I used to regularly go to Zen Dog Teahouse in north Seattle's Crown Hill, but these days Zen Dog isn't serving at the teahouse as much. Give him a call because if you catch him, it can be a fantastic experience sipping fine tea around the table with almost always interesting other customers.