Loss and gain

My dad died three years ago today. I'm going to the coast with my mom. Seems like a good thing to do today. Dad loved the ocean. For the 15 years he and my mom lived on the Monterey Peninsula, Dad never lost his passion for watching the waves crashing over the rocks. No matter the weather you could find them having a picnic dinner on their favorite bench between Lovers Point and Cannery Row. Pelicans flying over the waves at sunset--that's something my dad loved to see.

Speaking of sunsets, below is a photo Courtney took from our backyard facing west. Admittedly not every evening sky is this spectacular, but most nights it's beautiful when we're sitting on our back deck and having dinner at our picnic table. We most always comment on how lucky we feel to be in the Great Pacific Northwest.




This has been our first week alone--just me and Courtney in the house--now that Aaron is back in Pacific Grove. I'm thankful that his school has a schedule of nine weeks on and then two weeks off. That will be a long time apart but it'll work.

Meanwhile, we hopped into political stuff. We attended an event organized by Veterans for Peace in support of Lt. Ehren Watada who is the first commissioned officer to refuse to return to Iraq. The event was moderated by an OSU professor who teaches Peace Studies. We got a feel for the peace community here--well-informed, thoughtful, frustrated, active. Events like this have a double benefit because we educate ourselves about what's going on, but also meet potential friends.

The next evening Oregon Representative Pete DeFazio held a town meeting at the Benton County Library in downtown Corvallis, and we attended that along with about 75 others. Both Courtney and I were really impressed with DeFazio. Courtney wished he could sit down to coffee and a talk with him. I wished that I had taped the hour-long meeting because he had such good answers to the questions and my brain retained such a small amount of what he said. Anyway, as our Helen says, he's a smart cookie.

Then Saturday Courtney moderated the first in a weekly series of "Corvallis Open Forum". (For the past few weeks he'd been helping organize a venue at the riverside park downtown where anyone could get up on the soapbox--literally--and have 3 minutes to talk.) They had a small turnout, to be expected for the first one, but Courtney claimed it a success. No one got hurt or killed, those who attended got to stand up and speak their minds, and it's over with! I think he's quite brave to put himself out there like that. Hopefully their efforts will pay off and the Open Forums will grow and spread. Thomas Paine would be proud!

Corvallis has a reputation of being predominately white, well-educated and liberal. But there's actually more diversity than that here. Saturday afternoon we attended a Race Unity picnic organized by the local NAACP, among others. Each foray we make out into the community gives us a fuller picture of what's here and I think we're both feeling like this has been a good move for us.




But there's nothing like old friends. It was exciting for Courtney to have his dear friend Rosanna, and her sister Lashawna, stop by this week on their way through Oregon. It was, of course, a sweltering hot day but we found an air-conditioned taqueria and had a great time talking. We got to show them our sweet little home and our gardens and blackberries. They got to meet Maya and Ben (who slept the whole time). It was a brief but good visit.

Life continues to have such richness and texture. We both feel so blessed and grateful. And what more can we ask for?

Thanks for being interested in our lives in Corvallis.

See you next week,

Valori