california dreaming

I was reading my friend Jessica's blog tonight and it made me sad and lonely for California. Jessica moved to Houston around the same time as I moved to Vermont and had her baby after we parted, so I haven't met him and probably won't meet him when he's a little little guy. She and I lived blocks away from each other in Berkeley, so I feel a little pain in my heart knowing that had our lives gone a little differently, I could have been strolling the sidewalks of Berkeley taking a casual Sunday afternoon walk with her and Mr. Julius.

Lots of little things make me long a bit for the West. There are no plants here like the ones you see daily in California, and the air lacks that golden feeling. So many things I experienced in California are almost inexplicable--Pacific Ocean air, colors in sunsets that don't exist elsewhere, a calm expansiveness that can be pervasive, a sense of newness and warmth...Maybe it is the end of February winter blues, but I am doing some serious California dreaming tonight.

That said, I went for a beautiful ski through the woods before work this morning and said hello to the cute little winter ducks on the pond then drove through the hills to get to work and saw the snow drifts glinting in the sun. It warmed up today and there was a small inkling of mud season to come. The moon was only a tiny sliver in the sky tonight, and I drove back into our little town and felt very content. There is a silent solace in New England that I can feel in my bones and my connection to this part of the world is very deep. But, I do feel my heart is bi-coastal and so is my spirit, and I am a lucky girl to have two geographic loves.