Another Bend in the Road

I have a couple friends here in San Diego that have achieved some really awesome goals and I am feeling so warm and squishy inside with happiness for them!

I have known my friend Karin for, gosh, maybe fifteen years, although for much of that time I only saw her once a year at the National Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes we both attended yearly (until I had a family with more small kids than adults and Karin's mother suffered a stroke and Karin became her main caregiver).

Karin is an awesome force of nature.

She is an activist, a surfer, a person who knows what needs to get done and gets it done! She is a strong catalyst of change in her neighborhood community, too. She never sits around and says, "You know what someone should do?". She just goes out there and does it. For instance, she has recently worked to restore a small natural river at the end of her street back to its native plants and with a small group of people, worked to plant lots of native trees there and helps care for them until they can fend for themselves.

And now she is a novelist!

For many years she has been writing a book about a young woman and her search for her father who left the family she was just a small child. Last week, Karin finally finished her book, and gave a copy to me and our friend Jenn to read and critique. And I have to say, I have really been enjoying it! I just went to read a page or two to see what it looked like, and its already usurped the place of the book I had been reading!

Karin introduced me to her friend, Jenn, who is also a writer. She has just been accepted to a graduate program for writing and is packing up and moving her life to Albuquerque! She just bought the cutest little adobe home EVER and is a first time homeowner as well as a grad student now. She is in for some exciting new life changes and is excited about reinventing herself.

The three of us meet occasionally for long walks on a difficult-to-get-to and often deserted beach here in San Diego. We will sit and talk, sometimes swim, and when it gets dark, take the long walk home again, giving us all a much needed respite from the responsibilities of our lives.

On our hike down to the beach, I pass the place where Karin and I buried my old friend (my kitty) Hailey, and I always whisper a hello. It's a beautiful and natural place.

Saturday was our last walk together as a threesome before Jenn moves away and we decided to turn it into a little party/picnic, celebrating my friends' achievements. We had fresh yummy sushi, some beautiful desserts, and (shall we say...) a festive drink out of little plastic kiddie cups.

I wish my friend Jenn everything she hopes for and more as she goes off into her new world; her new life. I know Karin is going to have to get used to being apart from a very old and dear friend, so, while I know I can't fill those shoes, I hope I can pick up the slack a bit.