Peace in the Sand

I am still soaking in the soul nourishment from our overnight camping at the beach. It started upon arrival. We found the perfect spot, overlooking the playground, next to the new bathrooms, and within eyeshot of a firepit we wanted to nab that night. An amazing soul sister and her family came to join us for a bit of fun at the playground, then blessed us with the means to spend the night there.

This mama was in Pisces heaven!

I took a gazillion pictures and spent SO.MUCH.TIME just reflecting and standing in awe of how our time was perfectly unfolding.

After our friends/family left, we ran down to the water, where the kids played and I explained some stuff about the ocean to my Pisces son (like how the tides work and how sea creatures once lived in the shells we were finding).



I am home

We found peace in the sand

The kids got wet and sandy, and we headed back up to rinse off in the showers, as some new friends of ours showed up to bar-b-que with us.



The sun starting to set

The food and the company was delicious -- complete with the s'mores :)) We quickly realized that the firewood we (overpricedly) purchased was not going to be enough to get us through the bar-b-que even, so Kass went on a hunt for more firewood and blessed us with some HUGE heavy pieces that I knew would last us all night :))



The firepit was magic, toasty, incredibly healing.

After our friends left, me and the kids just sat there with the fire -- the kids did a bit of dancing around to their favorite tunes, and Kass serenaded us to her favorite YouTube videos until her phone died. And we just sat. Noble fell asleep in my arms. I sat there for a long time thinking, "This is it. This is what this is all about."

After I went and laid him inside the RV (and Kass stayed inside to read), Najaia and I grabbed my drum and headed back out to the firepit. It was a full moon. Let me back up a bit.... When I was pregnant with Najaia, I developed a burning desire to drum, so for my birthday right after she was born, I bought a djembe drum off Craigslist with background and energy I could vibe with :)  I had plans to visit drum circles and hula hoop jams :) Well, we haven't left the house with it, but the kids have enjed showing me what natural drummers they are inside :)) I, personally, seem to not be made for drumming, as I cannot keep a rhythm to save my life.

So, I bring the drum down to the firepit. And Najaia and I get comfy and start drumming together. I close my eyes and think of the full moon, and let the full moon channel through me. I can't say the sound was necessarily something I would proudly display, but it flowed through me and was a first step on my drum-playing-learning journey <3 What was most amazing was the magic that Najaia and I shared. As you can imagine, her and I don't get a lot of alone time together. This was extra-special :))

That night, I got to fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing at the shore... *melt*

The next morning, Najaia awoke with me, and we headed out to the playground to play, where I met an amazing hippy mama with kids spaced almost exactly like mine! I kept thinking, gosh, now that I have gotten out of the house in the last month and a half, I am meeting the most AWESOME people! Noble awoke while we were at the playground, and after our friends left, I grabbed my drum, and me and the babies headed down to the water.

The beach was almost empty (early morning, school in session), and that was where the drumming magic happened. It started with the kids drumming (and Najaia dancing, too)

and then it was my turn to drum. I channeled the ocean and listened to the drum, and it seemed my arms knew what to do, and my hands, too. It sounded AMAZING! Suddenly, the drum was a wonderland of sounds and feels and movements.

What rose up out of me was definitely drum-circle worthy. I was REALLY jamming. It was so awesome.

Noble asked if we could go up to the playground and I explained that I was playing for the waves. Suddenly, a wave starts climbing up the sand toward us - probably 10 feet of recently-wet sand, and at least 15 feet of dry sand... and stops about 4 feet from us. I was in awe and almost leapt up and cheered. I silently thanked the ocean for the greeting, the acknowledgement that I was playing for her. I look down the beach as far as I can see and see that it only came up that high in about 3 spots.

Noble's jaw has practically dropped. He takes the drum and starts drumming.

still drumming almost 20 minutes later

He drums the tide in ♥

Finally, he gets the sand-climbing wave he was waiting for :)) We decide to join Najaia in water play :))

digging for sand crabs

running away from the wave

Off on an adventure :)



Cutest baby feet pic I have ever seen :)) You can see her little pink-with-black-spots toenails :)

Then we head back up to the RV with plans to walk out on the jetty (the rock entrance/exit to the harbor). After we get changed, the sound of seals "ar-ar-AR"ing draws the babies to the boat docks part of the harbor :))

The CUTEST cloth diaper EVER, special made for Najaia from her Auntie MB -- it's a purple tiedyed star!



Kass joins us :))

Sisters ♥

Doing what boys do ♥ (or what my kids do LOL)

Making her sister feel better ♥

As it turns out, there were 4 seals sunbathing in the water :)) (and one playing and "ar-ar-AR"ing :))

I really wanted to get out on the jedi, and we had a birthday party to attend, so the time was a bit crunched. So, I talked the kids into going back to the RV with me to get ready for our hike out into the ocean :)) We ended up eating lunch (bread, bree, and apples -- YUM!), and when we headed out of the RV, we ran into a dear friend who happened to be at the playground with her daughter! So, we stuck around with them for a little while.

Wow, she touched my heart by expressing how encouraging my journey (via facebook) has been for her recently. We hugged for a long time. It was just what I needed to seal up the beach visit. I showed her the inside of the RV (hahaha, in all it's messiness!), and we said good bye. As I drove away, I felt the peace lingering. We stopped to dump our tanks and made new friends (full-timers of 10 years currently renting some horse-land property in Vista).

I love this life.

i. love. this. life.

Peace

During all the chaos, I had a few moments when we were driving by a gentleman sitting at the entrance of a shopping center collecting change, and we would make eye contact and he would throw up the peace sign, and everything inside me would rise up and resound, "Yeeeeessssssssss!!!!!!!"

Peace. Oneness. That is what this is all about.

I saw this same gentleman a handful of times - each one reminding me of the beautiful humanity of people. This man touched my soul and my journey in ways he never could have imagined. It was like an amazing photograph -- in a pocket in this crazy world is the eye of the storm: the gentleman with the peace sign.

He reminded me of this graphic that I have loved so much for so many years:

So, Monday was the day I wrapped up our storage situation. My friend's garage no longer holds anything that belongs to me, and the van (that we are still trying to sell) only has in it a folding table and chairs and 2 large hula hoops that we will probably strap to top of an economy car that we will buy when we sell the van :)) Yesterday, as I situated our stuff in a more permanent manner, I realized that we can comfortably live with what we own right now. Wow. That is amazing. It only took 1 1/2 months longer than I had anticipated LOL

Peace. Stuff peace. If the whole world went quiet and you sat down in the middle and meditated without interruption - THAT is the calm I feel from having stuff peace.

Ahhh, peace.

On, Tuesday, we were driving down to the beach, and I spotted a woman in a crowd waiting to cross the street with dreads that stuck up in all directions on her head. I couldn't help but smile big to her, and she smiled back -- an enthusiastic "That's right" kind of smile :) And as she passed by us to cross the street, she held up 2 fingers to share a moment of global peace and oneness with me.

I almost died!!!!!!! The peace sign again. I haven't seen so many peace signs (and from a delicious rainbow of folks) since the 60s -- okay, I was in the womb in the 60s, but I can imagine :)

The beach was A.MAZ.ING. It was just what this wild zen tribe needed, just what this peace-seeking bohemian Pisces mama needed. And there, we found peace in the sand...

This trip to the beach rivaled the overnight campsite for soul nourishment. This is exactly why we gave up everything we owned and moved into an RV. Boondocking and staying in our old neighborhood were great for my tiny wallet, but staying in these spots made me remember why I want to flourish in self-sustainability! I want this to be my life. The inner peace that I find when we are parked somewhere where we can get out and explore overnight fills me up in ways I can only begin to explain. I want this to be my life.

Peace to you, Dearest Tribe ♥

BEing in Nomads Land

In another life I was a stressed out mama of 3 children, a rapidly growing puppy, and 2 cats, with a big house to clean and care for and unlimited water, electricity, and internet. I had all the time in the world to sit on said internet, because I didn't leave that big house very often. I am certainly a creature of comfort, and everything I wanted and loved and collected over time to enjoy was there. I often went months without being face-to-face with someone other than my children (or my brother who usually lived with us). I had social anxieties that were buried beneath a life inside my house and deep important friendships via the internet.

Then, I got this wild hair (maybe it was one of those sacred gray ones on my head that I wanted to proudly display to the world?), and I decided to sell everything I own and fix up an old RV (and I had 2 months to do it). Crazy, right? Yeahhhhhhh, that sounds like me :)

4 days after living in this RV, I didn't remember the old life. The transition was often loud and sometimes painful and always flowing. I just went with it. I just kept the flow going. Out with the old, in with the new. I stayed mindful of the waves of processing that were happening as I let go of everything I had accumulated in my adulthood, everything that measured my adult success, everything that made me feel grounded and safe and secure in this world: 30-odd years of furniture, do-dads, and keepsakes (not to mention paperwork and crafting supplies!). It all just flowed out of my life, either through garage sales, Craigslist, free piles of stuff, theft, or whoever was around that liked something. It all went... Well, it is still leaving, actually. Until I will be whittled down to a mama with many warm bodies and stuffed nooks and crannies in a 24 ft (bumper to bumper) home on wheels.

Ahhhhh... Nomads land. I was made for this. The comforts of home with a changing view :) Radical minimalism. Life so simple you can't hide from your issues and there is more than enough room for growth. Oh, was I made for this. So many moments where I was just in awe of the perfection of this life for us, where I have resonated with the alignment of this life for us. The transition was wild, and the moment we were in, it was zen. Not that it has been easy - none of it has been (even the stuff I thought would be easy), not that it has been crazy-free, but it has all been worth it. I love a bit of hard labor. I don't mind working hard at the things I love.

I think I know why this radical revolution feels so different than some changes I have made in my life. This change was all about subtracting. Subtracting the excess, subtracting the stuff that doesn't really really really matter. And now that I have subtracted SO.VERY.MUCH, I have infinite room to grow new things. I have some pretty big things I am growing, actually :)) More on that soon.

So, today, I am a less stressed out mama. I am also a mama with a cleaner home, who goes outside several times a day and knows almost everyone in my old neighborhood, a mama who has space to sort out and sit with those anxiety issues that used to get swept under the rug, a mama who is riding the waves of this experience and appreciating every dip, loop, and climb. This has been and continues to be a wild experience, and I am really loving living so much in the present that my plans only extend out a week or so :)))

I have missed blogging so very much, and I already think my blog is due another make-over (hahaha). This blog is like my internet lifering. And I love Facebook. But this is my space to dig deep and share broad...

If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section below. So much has changed, I wouldn't even know where to begin describing all of it :)))

I love you!