Life's Changes

Welcome to my blog.

It's been more than a year since I've written anything and the first time I've opened up the blog to public eyes. I hope you'll check in from time to time to see what's happening in this glorious slice of the world: a small part of John Muir's Range of Light.

What a year it's been. So much has changed. So much is still in flux.

Suddenly my life contains something precious as gold, rare as hen's teeth up till now: time. My work week has turned into a "weekend" and weekends now stretch up to five days long. It's a switch that's requiring some mental adjustments, but I'm working on it. Thriving on it, in fact.

That's the newest change but far from the only one. In February Foxy, Grey Eagle and I left the backwoods of North Fork and moved to Yosemite Lakes Park where we're sharing a house with our dear friend, Carol. Grey Eagle, who just celebrated his nineteenth birthday, relishes the opportunity to dominate Carol, her lap and her house. Although she hates to admit it, she loves every minute. Foxy adores having a big back yard and a few dozen mule deer to "chase" through the fence that separates them.

When I moved to the Sierra Nevada foothills, nearly 20 years ago, I swore two things: I would never live in Yosemite Lakes Park, nor would I ever have a palm tree in my yard. Life has a funny way of turning the tables, and here I am, palm tree and all--and loving it! Well . . . still not so much loving the palm tree.

Go figure.

Yosemite Lakes Park, abbreviated YLP and pronounced "Wild Pea" around these parts is a "suburb" of Oakhurst and 25 or so miles north of Fresno. It's a place I originally considered "too yuppie" for my taste. While there are a lot of us big-city transplants around YLP, I guess, it's a rather horsey slice of the foothills not at all like the Southern California suburbs I escaped from. What was I thinking?

The best part of my life right now is the close proximity of daughter Farida along with favorite son-in-law Jason and one-and-only grandson, Hunter. They live on our 7+ acre property up in the wilds of North Fork, and I get to see them often.

The "other" best part of life is the opportunity to indulge even more than ever my passions for mountains, hiking, photography and writing. The writing has been on a back burner for the last ten years, and I look forward to bringing it front-and-center once again, starting with daily entries to this blog. I hope you'll let me share these passions and the many new ones sure to be discovered in the months and years to come with all of you.

The only downer is that daughter Nasreen still insists on staying in Santa Ana. She's a city girl, through-and-through. Where did I go wrong? I don't get to see--or even talk--to her nearly enough, but with my newfound freedom, perhaps that will change, too.

Thought for the day: We must be the change we wish to see in the world. --Mahatma Ghandi