I have been living in Walla Walla, WA for a little over two months. Nice small town of 30,000 or so people. A few miles to the East are the Blue Mountains and bits of Oregon ( Wallowa County, where I lived the past year.) and then Idaho.

Walla Walla is a clean little place that is a blend of of ranching, farming, 120+ wineries, and two small Colleges (They all call themselves Universities nowadays, shrug.), with good reputations  and a well-regarded Jr. College. So, there is just enough culture for those that want it plus some reasonable restaurants for those that care, and a few great Taco trucks, my favorites, and a handful of good working class places to eat. Lots of vegetarian choices because there is a strong 7th Day Adventist culture in the area, and lots of small “truck” farms with lots of fresh things available. Also informing the local culture a long established Latino community.

I’ve found a small local Sangha that I sit with once a week, and go over to the Wallowa Buddhist Temple in Joseph every few weeks to keep up connections with my friends there, and I’m a few hours away from some other good spiritual friends in St. Maries and Sandpoint, ID.

I seem to be well situated and hope to be able to figure out my next step, (With any luck, the last one), before the Fall/Winter. I can certainly see myself living here, it’s slow, and peaceful with four seasons, none too harsh, and two airports very close-by; so it’s almost all positives, at some point it would be nice if I can get a small job or activity to supplement cost of living and that all sort of thing; but that will become a little clearer as I get to know the area better.

For now I’m comfortably ensconced in a nice small house and have sorted through all my stuff and, reaching a point where I feel a bit of manageability in my overall situation.

I got to sort through the past, accumulations and memories, and get a bit of perspective on the last three years since Linda died. It’s taken this long for me to get little clarity on how “spun out” I’d been.

Birth. Old age. Disease. Death. With any luck our lives bracket these constants in that order. So far so good. I’m waiting on a CT scan for some information but seem to be in generally good health, memory slipping at what I hope is the normal pace but I’m not really worried about anything. I had 34 years clean and sober a few days ago and I was reminded that I was perfectly willing to die on the streets of San Francisco in 1981 until I asked for help, and then was finally able to accept it completely, and participate in it, in 1983. All these years have been a bonus and every minute a blessing of some sort.

Despite of the suffering I brought on to myself and others, I was able to encounter the Buddha Dharma. And, and, I was able to hear and see enough to realize that it was not only the way out of my predicament(s), but also the very vehicle to transport me into a new way of being, and relating, to myself, the world as constituted (In other words, Life.), and all my co-inhabitants of this endless opportunity (In other words, Life.) to cleanse my heart and help others.. That was shift for of 180°, in all directions.

So, musing on past, seeing more clearly the present and worrying less about the future causes less preference , insisting and picking and choosing. I am still very much a “picking and choosing” machine, but now that the batteries are running low It feels more natural to not spend so much energy on my little preferences.

It feels good to be typing this blather, so there may be more.

My address has changed 5

Times in the last 3 1/2

Years, and today I am

No further along than

I was, but I’m mostly

Here. To clarify;

Not Now, rather,

Here.