NaPoWriMo On the Road; Foodie Finds, Spiraling and Revisiting

How did I follow through on writing a poem every day for a month and then go on a road trip? How do I follow through on any aspect of regular life on a whirlwind road trip? It went well...

We got home from our Anchorage trip after 10pm last night (still some light in the sky!), having left around 9am the day before. With all the appointments, errands, visits with dear friends and, of course, all that driving, there wasn't a spare moment anywhere. I didn't even crack open the netbook! This has happened on previous trips, but with the tiny little computer and bag this time, it was certainly a far less encumbered progress than it has been before.

It also snowed yesterday!

that's Phil and yes, he's had a haircut!

 Back home now, with melting snow, blue skies again and a formidable inbox (including a software upgrade for one of my translation projects and a whole new system to learn) and seemingly bottomless blogroll, I'm feeling so grateful for my general feel-good and sense of calm. This trip hasn't sideswiped me as it sometimes does.

Sure, our truck came home looking ridiculous...
Phil picked up some new-to-us tires from someone on Craigslist...

 And guttering for our 'bunker' project... And of course, the coolers, produce, drybag with extra clothes (unfortunately, the drybag leaked)...

I think that part of the answer to why things went well was acceptance.
Even as rushed and all-over-the-place as we were, I had time for some indulgence. I visited the Natural Pantry, perhaps the only natural food store in our entire vast state, and enjoyed browsing around, both the latest in natural comestible creations and the "foodie toys" section...

 I used to feel guilty about this proclivity of mine, judging that it was time-wasting, flippant, unworthy. This time around, that voice was absent, and I enjoyed the bright colors, the bamboo, the Japanese bowls, the fabrics, the ideas that the cool tools tweaked in my head... I bought some gifts for a wonderful friend who is undergoing a major life transition...
...And I picked up a couple things for my own ensemble:

I got a bamboo 'spork' to go in my little lumbar pack, and enjoyed eating my packed lunch (salad and baked yam) with it very genteel-ly when I joined Phil and his friends at a cafe. I got a wicker strainer for my kefir grains. I'm no longer using that super-labor-intensive procedure for my coconut kefir-making: instead, I'm straining them twice, first to get the grains out, then, through two layers of cheesecloth, to separate the whey from the curd. So much faster and easier, but kefir doesn't love metal and I hadn't been able to find any other kind of non-metal strainer. This is flimsy, but works.
The Cultured Coconut Milk was pricy, but I've been wanting to try it for a while. It's good. Kind of sweet even without added sugar (a little tapioca dextrose and inulin is all), and a little 'artificial-tasting,' kind of like canned coconut cream. It is good, especially as an option for 'on the road.'

Sticking to a Practice
Having the commitment to write a poem every day actually helped me to feel good during this trip! I might have thought that as an extra 'thing to do,' it would have added to the stress. In fact, it was something that I love to do that I was looking forward to. As it turned out, both days, I wrote my poem right at the end of the day, after getting into bed. In neither case is it anything like a polished poem, but in both cases it's definitely something that I will continue to work on: last night's start was especially intriguing to me. Although 'catching up' is going to take up much of today, I am looking forward to having more time to create something new today!

Spiraling and Revisiting
Despite the time pressures on today and the desire to be succinct and coherent here, I want to add this final thought. Another part of my current 'feel-good' stems from a recent transformation in the way that I think about and use my past life experience. Until recently, I have tended to look back on previous phases of my life with dismay and judgment, all the things that were 'wrong' at those times. Lately, I've been finding myself revisiting past times with appreciation, seeing all the ways that things were good at those times. Not surprisingly, there's a 'food' index here: as I let go of my demonization of fruit of the last couple years, I am remembering and appreciating--and reliving in my body--all the positive aspects of the days when I was mostly frugivorous. I'll write about this more soon, but it feels like such a gift. And of course, it has me looking forward to being done yeast cleansing!

I'm feeling so much awareness of the cyclic shape of the passage of time, from this revisiting of earlier times in my life to the onward movement of spring happening here (amid the snow showers) and the recollections of last year's spring season, the looking forward to this summer's garden. Last winter was really hard for both Phil and me, and this time last year, we weren't feeling great. I had had concerns that the end of winter might be a rough time for us, as it was last year. Driving home together last night, through the snow showers and into the long, late sunset, we agreed that we're both of us feeling so much better than this time last year. Here's to upward spirals!

How are you noticing cycles and spirals in life?