January 31, 2009
Favorite places
…listen
…about the musicHome.
It has dawned on me that I actually travel a fair amount. Much more than I anticipated when I moved up to this floating paradise. But despite how often I seem to fling myself off of this island (voluntarily, so far: I have not been permanently voted off yet), it is truly the place I most love to be. In short order, it has become home, in the most profound of ways.
I type this from sunny Los Angeles, where I’ve just landed to do fun music-related things that you can read about on my website. Among today’s emails was one from a friend in which he asked, “do you think the fact that you travel often makes you appreciate your home environment even more?”.
Yes.
And no.
Yes, because I have yet to travel to a place that I find more alluring than the place I call home. In contrast to everywhere else my body lands, I appreciate this set of coordinates the most.
And no, because even if I never, ever left this island, I believe I would appreciate it every bit as much as I do sitting here, far from it.
Above: three very favorite views from home: South Beach after a storm, False Bay in dense fog, and a magical, Gilligan’s Island type spot on Turn Island right across from my house, to which I have paddled several times and have promised myself that I will camp there. And I will. The shortest trip of the year, yards from my driveway that’s nestled in the woods on the left side of the photo, will probably be the one I appreciate the most. Ahhhhhh.
Glenn Buttkus said,
February 2, 2009 @ 6:21 am
I guess in your case, the love you feel for your island paradise, and how centered you must be there, nestles in the real place within you, like genuine love you feel for another person–you might miss it when it is gone for a time, or you are, but it does not mean you will love it/him/her more when you reunite, maybe just love it a little harder and more fervently for a short time during the homecoming.
Yes, you do travel a fair bit. Seems inordinately expensive to we more grounded types, but it probably all figured into your tax write offs and professional agenda. I put my wife on a plane for a conference Wednesday morning. She does 3 t 4 trips a year without me, mostly for porfessional reasons, and love to travel, never gets enough. After I retire, I might go with her once in a while.
Thanks for another 1:37 of EvenSong this morning, for it is a deeply blue Monday here in the damp and dark, and I am wearing blue, and feeling blue, and am even looking for those Beatleful blue meanies out there in the lond shadows of the fir that I glide through from the car to the office. EvenSong sort of perked me up, and I needed the perking. Enjoy the warmth there in CA.
Glenn
Michele said,
February 2, 2009 @ 9:22 pm
Beautiful post.. Its hard to fall in love with another place other than San Juan Island… I have only been there once, fell in love with it and have felt homesick from there ever since the first day I returned home. I keep in touch with all the happenings and the most nicest people I met there. And am impatiently awaiting for my 2009 vacation there. Have a great week…
Mike Wills said,
February 3, 2009 @ 11:02 am
Nice depth of field in the first shot, Alex. Are you using a tripod now, or simply crouching to brace elbow against thigh?