"Under the Wing", photo collage by Dascha Friedlova, 2009

(Author’s note: It is interesting to me to see how my thoughts and writing style have evolved over years of time.  I see that there is still some use to the writings below, so offer them for your perusal.  Perhaps an updated version will follow!)

The Gift of Gratitude

How Giving Thanks Raises Our Vibration

By Licia Berry, 2004, originally published on www.liciaberry.com

The woman feels herself sinking into the familiar deep well of despair as she watches the nightly news.  She knows where this will go; she will be hit in the gut with absolute hopelessness, and in response she will find something to eat to fill the gnawing in her belly or she will pour herself a glass of alcohol to numb the pain.  Or, she will go upstairs to her bedroom and cry, wringing her hands over the state of the world, and fall asleep in tears.  This road is all too familiar to her; it goes nowhere good.  Then, something quietly dawns on her.  She hears a subtle voice; something tells her that she doesn’t have to choose this road, that there are others.  She makes a small move that begins to break the pattern she has lived over and over.  She goes into the room where her dusty sewing machine sits in the dark.  She pulls out a pattern she abandoned a long time ago and begins to sew, with devout attention and precious care, as if her very emotional well being depended on it.  She feels a bit better, a little at a time, then notices when two hours have flown by that she has been completely absorbed in her creative work.  She hasn’t thought about the horrific state of things for even a moment.  By making a leap out of the familiar, she has cut a new pathway.  She has made a new choice.  And the more often she takes the small step to do something different each time she goes into reaction about something, the easier it will be to have power over her response.

What happened when this woman made the choice to do something positive in the face of her despair?  Her body and mind were accustomed to going down a particular road…in fact; our bodies begin to expect us to go down certain path in the face of certain stimuli.  It is as if we train ourselves from an early age how to respond to emotional stimuli, mental challenges, physical difficulties, and even trauma.  But we always have the choice in how we respond, no matter how automatic our responses may feel.

“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend… when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present — love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure — the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.”
Author: Sarah Ban Breathnach

We all experience moments in our day when something unexpected arises, or we don’t achieve a desired outcome.  We can perceive these situations as negative, positive or neutral.  Our attitude towards the event is not pre-ordained or automatic, although it may feel that way due to its being conditioned in our bodies for our entire lives.  In actuality, how we respond is our choice.  When faced with a potential shift in our attitude, there arises a single moment of decision about how we will handle it, what I call a “choice-point”.  We can choose whether we will tumble down the rocky hillside of victimization, ending up bruised and battered at the bottom, or we can choose to look at the situation as a learning opportunity, asking ourselves questions like, “What is the gift in this situation?  What message has the universe brought to me?”  By examining the situation from a larger perspective, we realize that we do indeed have a choice about how we respond.  And if we do go down the victim road, we can always stop and focus on what we are grateful for to bring us back up.

Scientific studies have confirmed what the sages and mystics of earth’s history have been telling us all along.  Gratitude, prayer and love carry a high vibration, whereas despair, anger and fear carry a low vibration.  Our bodies carry vibrations that change with our thoughts and with the vibrations we encounter as we move through the world.  A person whose body is wracked with disease is suddenly cancer-free after several hundred people prayed for him. A partygoer may show up grumpy and feeling anti-social, but winds up giving up the grumps because everyone else at the party is having a good time.  I may intersect with a rude person in a store, whose vibration is quite low due to their anger.  My body’s vibration may fall into a lower state if I allow myself to be triggered by this person.  Or, I can consciously choose to respond to the situation with love and maintain a high vibration in the face of the rudeness.  If I am around this person long enough and I focus on maintaining my high vibrational state, the other person’s body will be affected by MY vibration.  By the end of our interaction, whether we have said anything to each other or not, his vibration may have risen to the point that he is not angry anymore. This is the principle of resonance.  In layman’s language, the principle of resonance says that when there are two differing vibrations, one will rate of vibration will soon resonate like the other or they will move towards each other and meet in the middle.  This can mean that a lower vibration cannot remain constant in a sustained field of higher vibration.

This principle of resonance is played out beautifully in our physical bodies in the phenomenon of kidney stones.  We know that kidney stones are hard little calcifications that have to be passed through the body or surgically removed.  However, a recent technology now uses very localized doses of high vibration, aimed at the kidney, to actually dissolve the kidney stones.  The kidney stones are reduced to their smallest particles and passed easily through the body.  We can think of this as an example of how a low vibration, no matter how solid it appears, can be changed by focusing high vibration onto it.

Another example of this phenomenon of changing the vibration of something that seems unchangeable is the study done in 1993 by the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy in Washington DC.  This National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness brought approximately 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs to the United States national capital from June 7 to July 30, 1993. A 27-member independent Project Review Board consisting of sociologists and criminologists from leading universities, representatives from the police department and government of the District of Columbia, and civic leaders approved in advance the research protocol for the project and monitored its progress. The study, led by John Hagelin, PhD., showed a 25%-48% decrease in violent crime during the time period of the study.  The conclusion that can be drawn was that the high vibration of the 4000 meditators infiltrated the DC area, and that the low vibration of the aggression causing violent crime could not be sustained in the high vibrational filed created by the meditators.  (For more information on this study, go to http://www.istpp.org/crime_prevention/ )

A beautiful example of how our thoughts change vibration is evidenced in Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work.  He has documented, through remarkable photographic techniques, water’s response to positive and negative thoughts.  (Remember that positive feelings such as love, gratitude and prayer carry a high vibration, where as anger, sadness and fear carry a low vibration.)  In the case of a highly polluted river in Japan, the water photographs show a diffused, disorganized water molecule group.  When the very same water was blessed with prayer, the water formed exquisite, organized crystal shapes.  His research went further when he placed written phrases on bottles of distilled water and left them overnight.  Water responded to these phrases similarly; the water which sported the label “Thank You” formed beautiful symmetrical crystals, where as the water that carried the “You Make Me Sick” label responded with a discomforting display of pockmarked blobs.  As is evidenced in Dr. Emoto’s work, our attitudes and thoughts are reflected perfectly in the structural integrity of the water.  The really interesting implications of Dr. Emoto’s work lie in considering that human beings are more than 70% water.  If these thoughts affect a bottle of water so powerfully, how do our thoughts affect us and each other?  (See the website www.hado.net )

Even when some things may not be going the way we want, we can find other things in our lives that ARE supportive and be thankful for those.  And this will raise our vibration.

I was in a situation recently where I was reminded of this truth.    My family and I have been traveling now for almost a year in a motor home.  We recently encountered issues that have necessitated taking our home in to a dealership for repairs.  What was supposed to have been a simple overnight repair became a two-week ordeal.  Because we are living in the RV, we have been unable to access the things that we normally need to live our daily lives.  After a week of “not having a home”, I became triggered into feeling “homeless” and victimized.  While this would seem a reasonable response to the situation, I was miserable.  Life looked a whole lot less wonderful because of the state I was in.  I was in a low vibrational field of hopelessness, anger and depression.  After a few days of hanging out in this state, I remembered that I had other choices. I looked around me and was reminded that home is where the heart is; I have my beautiful family, we are together, and we are healthy and well.  AND, I was reminded that my Spirit is my true home, and that nothing can ever take that away from me.  Choosing not to identify with the low vibrational state, I slowly felt my perspective shift as I focused on how grateful I am.  It literally took me 10 minutes for my perspective to shift radically into feeling like I was basking in a ray of warm love.  I could not wipe the smile off of my face (nor did I want to!)  I see now that if I want to be happy in my life, there is great wisdom in choosing to be grateful and look on the bright side!

In addition to feeling better, being in a high vibrational state brings a clarity and focus that is not present in low vibrational states…we can think of acting out in anger and regretting later what we have said, or how people who are depressed feel fuzzy headed, as if they cannot think clearly.  This clarity that comes with high vibration suddenly brings everything into focus.  What is important becomes very pointed and clear!  And from this place we can make better decisions in our lives – decisions that make a positive contribution to our own well-being as well as the well-being of others and the planet.

And, if you don’t have enough reasons to consider feeling gratitude on a regular basis, consider this additional benefit, noted by Christiane Northrup: “Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.”  Here we see the principle of resonance yet again, as well as the law of attraction.  If we hold a high vibration, not only do we shift the rate of vibration around us, we attract similar vibration.  If you want more true love in your life, radiate true love.  If you want more kindness shown to you, overflow with kindness towards others.  If you seek more abundance in your life, look for the abundance that you already have and shower gratitude upon it.  (And remember that abundance is not only measured in money!  It is also love, health, freedom, creativity, wisdom, experiences, inner satisfaction, caring, giving, receiving teachings, giving teachings, blue sky, rain, good food, friends, time, togetherness, good books, options, loyalty, growth, family, manifestation, spiritual help, wide open vistas, sunrises, sunsets, trees, birds, animals and plants, air, water, fire, space, the stars and planets, and this beautiful earth which holds and sustains us!)

So what can you do to raise your vibration?  There are many resources you can draw on.  Some examples are mediation, reading holy texts, creating, dancing, singing, moving your body, celebrating, laughing, praying, making a list of the things in your life you are grateful for and thanking each of them, and of course setting the intention to raise your vibration.  Almost anything that takes you out of your usual pattern of heading down “Victim Road” will point you in the high-vibe direction.  And you and the world will be a better place for it.

I was realizing that I have not written a straight family-whereabouts-update in ages, so for those of you who might be a little weary of my philosophizing, this is for you!

We are in Pismo Beach, California and enjoying the most spectacular warm, sunny days and cool nights right on the Pacific Ocean.  We moved down here on January 18, and will stay until February 6th.  The park we are staying in is a mega-resort-thingie….usually not very appealing to us back-to-nature types!  But we have had uninterrupted internet service, laundry right on site, a place I can spread out and do DDR (hard to dance like a maniac in the RV), and a place to ride our bikes for hours on end…the waterline on the beach.  We have had the BEST time here. 

It has been a nice break from the intensity of the inner work we were doing at the campground in San Luis Obispo.  I find that SLO has an energy of healing, which means to ME that it helps to bring up, in the most loving way, those energies within that are outdated and ready to heal.  Sometimes this feels very good and welcoming (in fact, that is how we have felt about SLO most of the time!)  Other times, it can be intense and a little trying.  Asheville NC was that way for us, but we are much more conscious now, so we are not experiencing the whumps-on-the-head that we did in our 7 years there. 

Coming down to Pismo has been literally that…it has felt like coming down into an easier vibration, one in which we can relax and assimilate all of the inner changes we have been making. 

SO, what’s the plan?  Well, here we are in the most fabulous winter I think I have ever experienced, enjoying the heck out of it.   We feel we have found paradise, and we have no desire to go elsewhere.  The Central Coast is a gem and definitely the right place for us.  

But we have these properties in Colorado that we need to sell, which are located in a spectacular remote region most people have never even heard of.  Colorado’s real estate market is doing pretty well, but in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, you have to WANT to live there.  We believe someone very special will feel called to own our homestead in the largest alpine valley in the world.  Here is a link to our house if you’d like to have a look: http://www.berrytrip.us/Sanctuary.htm.  Until we sell THERE, we can’t become permanent residents HERE. 

So we are kind of floating in a grounded way.  Sounds funny, I know! 

We are being welcomed into the community here, we are doing our homeschooling and working and living our lives, but doing it an RV in parks surrounded by people that are on vacation or retired, full-timing.  We want so much to be in a house and get the kids in school and SETTLE IN.  But it is not time yet.

We are developing a “PLAN A”.  PLAN A says that we will remain in the RV, bouncing around the RV parks in the SLO area until the end of March, at which point we will put the RV in storage and go back to Colorado to pack up our belongings.  We will plan to be there for four weeks.  The snow should be fairly gone by then; it will still be pretty chilly compared to coastal California, but we can buck up for a month.  We will pack up a moving truck and bring our belongings to California, where we will rent a house May 1st.  At that point we will become residents enough that we will feel part of things and can get the kids in school.

It is not ideal, for sure…I would rather not have to move twice; for once our properties sell in Colorado, we will want to buy a house here.  But I suspect a larger logic; perhaps it is a timing issue.  California is going through a very difficult time economically (except for little pockets such as San Luis Obispo, for some reason that I could pontificate about for many hours).  Perhaps it is not good to be tied to the state in a more permanent way just yet. 

And so we will remain as grounded as we can, as much a part of the community as we can, while we also remain stretched and flexbile.  Fortunately, we learned on our 2-year journey that our groundedness is in our own Beingness and in our family.  We have been practicing this ever since, the way the Buddhists practice meditation.  This seems to be something that we have become good at as a family, as we have been called to do it many times now.  Perhaps it is a skill that will serve us well in the future.

It has been three weeks since my last confession….I mean BLOG entry….and I can’t believe it has been so long since I posted anything!  it certainly isn’t because there has been a shortage of happenings with us Berries in the Berry Patch!

We left Monterey after Thanksgiving and camped back in San Luis Obispo, which we have decided is our new homeplace.  We just love it in SLO…the energy there is a GREAT match for us and where we want to go in our lives.  We are so very grateful to have found our new location, and so easily and quickly!  Now we have the task of manifesting actually living here!

We considered traveling around some more, but none of us want to, so we are stationed in SLO for the forseeable future.  We are looking for a long-ish term solution to camp in the RV, perhaps a spot of private land someone would rent to us where we can plug in and live until we sell the Colorado properties and/or manifest other miracles!  If you know of a possible solution or have a creative idea, please be in touch!

Today we are celebrating Solstice (Winter in this hemisphere).  We find the Solstice to be much more where our hearts resonate during the whole holiday hoopla.  For me, it is because the Solstice is not a man-made event chosen on some arbitrary day, but a celestial one, one that is way beyond our control as human beings to mis-interpret or twist to our agenda.  It is very simple….it is the end of the long dark and the coming of the light.  Good reason to celebrate in my view!       

I have felt since the election that we have all been very tired….bone tired, in fact, as though lots of us have been in labor pains for many, many years, and that we finally succeeded in birthing this new era, symbolized by the election of Obama.  I am weary from the effort, me thinks!  But this is just the beginning…this baby is brand new and it will take a firm, wise and compassionate hand to raise it!

It feels so perfect to me that the Winter Solstice is following so closely after the election….I think of Solstice as a wonderful time to reflect on what I have learned in the last year, and to thank the Whole of Creation for all that it has brought to me…..and then to dream about the new cycle that is coming, the fresh year ahead.  What do I desire?  What are the next steps in my growth and understanding?  How can I be the best Divine Human that I can be and be of service to the Whole?   What is so very dear to my heart?  These are all wonderful things to reflect on this day.

And tomorrow, we will have our version of the gift giving that occurs in other holidays…the day after Solstice feels like a day of abundance and celebration to me, an ushering in of the new energy that we are choosing to align ourselves with.

May you have a peaceful and fulfilling Solstice, and blessings to you and yours!

xoxoxo

Licia and da Berry Boys

Boys in the Redwoods

While here, we have explored Santa Cruz and found the best burritos we’ve had since leaving North Carolina (found at Tacos Moreno, where you will find a line out the door every day).  We’ve driven up the most gorgeous Pacific coastline north of Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay, watching the windsurfers battle it out with the waves at Scotts Creek Beach (apparently a nude beach, but there weren’t any nudies when we went there!), and we have walked among the Mother and Father trees in Big Basin State park, a true wonder to behold.

Peter Hugging a Redwood

The town of Felton is fairly small, population about 6500, but it has a lot going on, and as we have found in California, towns are smacked up right next to one another, rather than having lots of space between them.  So if you don’t find what you need in one town, you drive 5 minutes and you will find it in the next town!  Felton has a sweet main street with a few cool shops and restaurants, and the people are super friendly.  Many here, once hearing what our family is up to, have insisted that we move here to the Santa Cruz area.  Well, who knows?  Nothing is a done deal at this point…the mystery of how we will pull off buying property in California has not been revealed to us yet.  But it is safe to say that all four of us are still yearning to get back south to San Luis Obispo.  IN the mean time, we have enjoyed the magic of this area very much….we’ll be back!

Redwood Dragon

We are headed south to Monterey for the Thanksgiving holiday to be with Peter’s family again, then we will go back to San Luis to spend some quality time getting to know the area and the people there….it felt so right while we were there, and now we are going to test those feelings and see what we come up with.  We can’t wait.

Rocks and Waves off of Pacific Grove, CA

We have been here for more than a week…We have been staying at the Laguna Seca Raceway, which boasts a hilltop campground with an astounding view of the surrounding hills.  Salinas is just up the road about 10 miles, and the town of Monterey only 7 in the other direction.

Pete’s parents live here (lovely visiting with them) as well as his sister, her husband and two young daughters.  Jess and Aidan had a great time connecting with their little cousins…there was much tickling and playing going on!  This week we have played on the beach, enjoyed the Monterey Aquarium, and driven around the cute little towns here.  Much of the focus has been on spending time with Pete’s family.

While stationed here, I attended a 4 day retreat in San Mateo with Bruce Lipton (of Biology of Belief fame-I interviewed him on my radio show in September) and Rob Williams, the originator of the Pysch-K process, (of which I am now a practitioner).  It was a fantastic learning experience for me, confirming much of what I intuitively know about how energy works within the human body and experience, and how the body, mind and spirit interact. 

Licia and Bruce Lipton, San Mateo Retreat, November 2008

I made many friends, and felt as if I found some more of my “tribe” members.  Some of the attendees were from other countries, and many were from California.  The California folks were very excited to hear about my family’s journey to search for our new home and strongly advocated that we move to this state; many also had great things to say about San Luis Obispo.

We have all felt the strangest longing for SLO since we left it more than a week ago….it is surprising to me that we could feel such an affinity for a place so quickly!  We have yearned to go back south since the day we arrived here.  Now, over a week later, we seem to have adjusted to the very different vibration here, but all of us still want to go back south again.  Wow.  Maybe San Luis Obispo IS the place for us.

But we will not go south just yet, no matter how we pine away for it!  We are heading north into the Redwoods around the Santa Cruz area for a week and then back down to Monterey for thanksgiving with Peter’s family…and THEN we will look at heading south again to SLO.

A note to readers: I am just learning the blogging thing.  After many years of writing for my professional website, www.liciaberry.com, but not having a mechanism for readers to comment directly on my writing, I am find it a new foray into relationship to be open to receiving comments about what I write.  I actually like to get feedback from readers and to hear how something touches you in some way.  So I do invite you to comment here on our Berry Blog!

If you have followed our story at all, you know that we listen to our inner guidance to determine where we are going and where to stay, etc.  This was a skill that we developed as a family during our last Big Trip that served us very well.  As a result of asking for input from the larger picture, God/Spirit/All of Creation, we have had the most magical adventures and met the most marvelous people. 

To navigate through the Los Angeles area, we were guided to stay “north and west” of L.A.  When I looked at the map, I asked about the places I saw there and got a “Yes” on Van Nuys area.…typically, I take the guidance I am given and search online or through other resources for RV parks in that area.  I found two, but one I got a clear “NO” on, and the other was just “Okay”.  We could find no other ideal RV park in the area, so we wound up at Walnut RV Park, where we are squished in like sardines, but it is very quiet and safe, and convenient to lots of amenities.

Jude and Scout, our travel vehicles, and the Lovely Tree

Our trip to the Getty Center was easy and wonderful…we got there early on Saturday and spent four hours enjoying the art, the architecture and the amazing space created there.  I found myself taking photos (which is allowed there, by the way!) of Madonna and Holy Family art…hmmmm, wonder why that is?   Of particular interest to me is a piece in which Mary is breastfeeding Jesus.

“The Madonna and Child with a Male Saint, Catherine of Alexandria, and a Donor” about 1496, by Michelangelo di Pietro Membrin, tempera on panel

It is such a phenomenal gift to the world that this resource is being made available to the public, and free of charge.  Thank you, Getty Family!

My visit with Joan Norton was delightful…I am a little wary about the social network craze, having been burned pretty badly on FaceBook.  It is easy to think you know someone when you are only interfacing with the persona they present online…but it can be a very different story when you get under the surface of the mask.  Joan is one of those genuine gems that came across my path while I explored social media this last summer.  She is intelligent, insightful, and heartfelt in her understanding and communication about Mary Magdalene’s story, and the blessed union of the masculine and feminine.  I highly recommend her blog, Mary Magdalene Within.

As we neared our third day in the L.A. area, I noticed that my sweet Pete seemed tired and a little cranky….He is mostly a pretty energetic person, and hardly ever is he a grump, so this was unusual.  When I asked him what was going on for him, he said he thought his sensitivity to density had increased so much it was really getting to him to be in the population center that L.A. is.  It was literally sucking him dry, draining his batteries to be there.  This was interesting to me, as I have struggled with this problem for years, but have found some way to center and balance now so that I am not so affected by population density.  I actually remarked on how good I felt considering how much energy we were in the midst of.  The kids seemed pretty balanced, too.  We did all remark, though, that it did not feel like the right place for us to live.     

On our last night there, the kids practically kicked us out the RV door for another date night.  We are very blessed with children who truly value that Pete and I actively love each other and spend time working on our relationship.  The kids know that daddy and mommy time is super vital to the health of our family, so they understand and even encourage us to take time out for us.  Plus, that means they get to play their video games without interruption!  So Pete and I went out to a great little sushi place that was literally around the corner.

We sat at the sushi bar, our favorite place to enjoy the sushi experience, where I sat next to a perfectly pleasant fellow who was there on business.  As we got to chatting with him, he shared that he travels the world, teaching about how to do day trading on one’s own.  This sounded lovely and exiting…what a great career, empowering people to take their financial destiny into their own hands!  But as we talked, I felt the presence of something tightly wound in him, something that felt repressed, as if the surface did not match his insides.  I found out later that, as I left for the ladies’ room, Pete learned from this man that he used to be married.  From what he told Pete, he and his wife came to a place that she requested that he choose between his career and her due to his long periods of travel.  He told Pete that he loved his career more than his wife, and they are no longer married. 

This made me feel sad and also caused me to remember back in 2003 when we left Asheville for our first Big Trip….I couldn’t understand why so many of my then-women-friends seemed to be so mad at me, and did not say in touch with me when we left.  I did not find out until months later, when one of them shared reluctantly with me, that they were jealous that “your man chose you over his career”.  You might remember that Pete left his promising career with Toshiba in order to go on the road and do the work of reclaiming us, his family. Back then, I was stunned that a beloved partner would NOT choose his partner over his career, if for some reason it came down to that in their lives.  Apparently, I am one blessed woman to have a partner who values me and our love partnership over anything else in his life.

We left Los Angeles on Monday, November 3^rd and headed north to San Luis Obispo.  It was there, a mere five weeks into the journey, that we got the biggest surprise of our trip thus far…. 

We have had an eventful time since we left Tucson! 

The drive over to the Pacific was merciless as we did not make reservations (BIG NO-NO when you are driving something 35 feet long and weighing 20,000 pounds), so poor Pete was stuck behind Jude’s wheel for 400 miles until we found a place to stop for the night.  That wound up being Live Oak Springs, a lovely hideaway that has been owned by the same family for 25 years east of San Diego off I-8.  We collapsed, ordered in for pizza, and zoned out in front of the TV for the night.

But the following morning as we shook the trauma of the long previous day off, we had an utterly easy drive and got totally high on the Pacific air.  We cruised through San Diego with minimal stress, and headed north on I-5, the road that we think will be the back bone of our west coast trip.  We will deviate here and there, but will come back to I-5 like homing pigeons as we journey.

We ended on Monday, October 27 at San Clemente, a lovely little beach town.  We stayed at the San Clemente State Beach, which is a gorgeous park right on the cliffs with trails down to the beach.  It was a completely perfect orientation for our being on the Pacific coast….I found myself to be in a little shock, still getting used to the changes in elevation since we departed Colorado at over 8000 feet, but what was more intense for me was the change in density, the energy of so many people in a concentrated area.  While the drone of I-5 is constant and loud, the San Clemente area is a great place to get accustomed to the Southern California (So Cal) vibe because of the prolific buffer zone of Nature.

We came here as a destination because Peter made contact with an old high school friend from Flint School, a sailing school that cruised Europe in over the 1978-79 school year.  We won’t get into what a bizarre and unhealthy experience it was here, but suffice it to say that Peter has had some healing to do about it; part of his process was to reach out to others recently to hear what their experiences were.  A true gift for him has been to hear his own experience echoed and confirmed.  As our guidance supported us coming here, one of the absolute gems that he found in his search for friends from his past is Janet Harder, who now resides in the San Clemente area.  She welcomed us with open arms into her home despite not having seen Pete for 30 years, was the most excellent tour guide with suggestions about places to go, made us wonderful food, and even hooked us up with the gorgeous state park we stayed in.  She is a delight, and I am happy to say, a new friend for me as well!

Janet, Peter and Licia in San Clemente CA

While there, we visited the San Juan Capistrano Mission as part of home schooling to learn about California history.  The oldest building in California, this lovely mission did a great job of linking its long and many-chaptered history together and presenting it to visitors.  I recommend the audio tour that comes with your entrance ticket (thanks for the tip, Janet!).  Of interest to us was how the local Indians, the Acjachemen, assisted the Spanish in building the mission, being close friends and allies for many generations.  To this day, the mission has a special ceremony when a descendant of those Indians passes away. 

Bells and Fountain at San Juan Capistrano Mission 10-29-08

Pete and I even got a date night….we haven’t had one in ages, so it was extra special.  The boys are old enough now that leaving them by themselves for a couple of hours is not a problem…in fact, they are both babysitting age.  We went for a romantic, fog filled night to the Fisherman’s Restaurant on the pier.  We had a delicious dinner, but the view of the foggy evening over the water was unparalleled.

We made a reluctant departure from San Clemente on Halloween, and headed north to Los Angeles (L.A. on Halloween, you say?  That IS scary!)   Obviously, I had to overcome some fear when we were guided to come through here.  But it brought another level of understanding and comfort level about southern California.  Here I have had to confront my judgments about southern California and the people who live here….as usual, what I have found is that judgments are such generalizations, and that they should be challenged and violently broken…..they just aren’t true, and don’t hold up when you come with an open mind and open heart. 

Our adventures in Los Angeles tomorrow……

It is nice to come to a place that has such fond memories for us.  Pete and I really struck out on our own for the first time here, leaving our southern roots and families to “seek our fortune out west”.  We grew up a lot here, and learned much about ourselves.  We explored this state with a hunger to know it inside and out.  I would venture to say that I know Arizona better than I know my own home state of North Carolina!

I am also blessed to have my Aunt Wendy here; she has become more of a mother figure to me than an aunt, and it is really lovely to connect with her when we come here.  My grandmother is also here; we enjoy taking the opportunity to visit with her and let the boys spend a little time with their Great Grandmother.  Aren’t they beautiful?

We are doing all the nutty running around, getting errands done before we leave the state and make our way into California.  I am nervous about how crowded things are there, and imagine it will be lots more expensive to travel there than anywhere else we have gone.  I was a bit of a stress monkey today as we made reservations and tried to figure out how to navigate around Los Angeles…I felt my heart close up and I credit my son, Jess, with asking me the quiet questions to crack me open again.  I had a little cry, expended the pent-up energy, and was all better. 

We plan to be here until Sunday morning…we will travel across I-8 to San Clemente, where we will say hello to the Pacific!

The boys enjoyed the Big Tank…Peter is a huge fishing enthusiast and lamented being unable to catch some of the prize redfish on display:

Da Berry Boys posing in front of the Big Tank

We were guided to leave Corpus on Wednesday, October 16^th…so we pretty much had the RV ready by then.  As we left, we gassed up at the local Valero, and were shocked to see that gas prices had dropped to $2.32 a gallon!  We took a picture because we know we won’t likely see that price again!

The 16^th we headed up to San Antonio….again, we were guided to go there.  We thought we were going so that we could have the car serviced (40,000 miles in 16 months!)  But it turned out there was something more special in store!

At close to time to make supper, I received a call from a man who said he had seen our website and that his family was planning a cross-country trip to see National Parks.  He had received our web address from a woman who had met us 4 years ago, when we were on our first big trip and were stationed at Padre Island National Seashore as volunteers.  She remembered us and passed our contact info on to him as a resource for his own family’s trip.  Usually a procrastinator by his own admission, he called on this night to ask some questions.  He said he had seen we were in Texas to get the RV, and wondered if we were still in the state.  I told him we had just left Corpus Christ, but we were staying in San Antonio until the following morning, when we would be heading west.  He paused for just a moment before he said, “I live in San Antonio!” 

This is exactly the kind of thing that used to happen to us all the time on our previous journey…the magic of synchronicities became so common place that we expected them.  It was so fun to feel the “magic window” open up again for this kind of happening!  He suggested our families meet for dinner at a famous burger joint in town…we did, and we spent hours talking and answering their questions.  They are very special people and I want to pass their website on to you to see what they are up to.  Their current plan is to disembark in December.  We can’t wait to meet up with them on the road somewhere out there!

We left San Antonio on Friday, October 17^th and headed west on highway 90; we slept at Alpine, Texas at the Lost Alaskan RV park, where Susan in the office was an absolute hoot (the park was great, too, except that the pool was closed down for the year).  As we drove away from Alpine the following morning, I had the sense that we wouldn’t be seeing Texas (or, Tejas in Spanish) again for a long time.  The sweet rolling hills and live oak trees are so very beautiful there.

Thank you, Tejas, for the memories!

So next…..a night in Deming, New Mexico on our way to Tucson AZ.  We will be in Tucson for the week of October 19-25.  More soon!

When we arrived down in the Corpus Christi area to fetch the RV on October 5th, it was a balmy 90 degrees and the soft, moist air billowed our sails after a LONG drive down from Colorado.  After waking up to 30 degree mornings back home, the warmth was a welcome change.  Felt like vacation all over again!  We found out later it snowed the day after we left.  Hee hee, good timing, Universe!

We promptly scurried around, getting the RV back into live-in condition and doing the inevitable shopping to re-outfit us.  We fell into an easy pattern within 3 days….we know this routine so well after traveling together for those 2 years!  We parked (I just cannot, in good conscience, use the word “camped”) at a GREAT place in Portland, Texas, right on the bay across from downtown Corpus Christi, called Sea Breeze.  The water was lovely, the fishing was good, the skyline lights at night were jewel-like.  It was a perfect spot to regroup after leaving Colorado and to prepare for our sojourn. I was asked by my dear friend Elizabeth Barbour what it was like being back in the RV again, and I was happily surprised to hear myself say that it was a breeze.

For those of you who have not gone RVing for any length of time, there is an entire lifestyle and culture that goes along with it.  I was reminded as we did our laundry at the recreation building and was chatting with other RVers how much I enjoy the core devotion to freedom that Rvers seem to embody.  It is an unspoken, but highly respected value that we hold dear.  I imagine this is true for anyone who seems to have travel in their blood!

We went to Padre Island a couple of times to play in the gulf….the water was clear and gorgeous…however the beach was covered in trash washed ashore from Hurricane Ike, which hit north of Corpus Christi at Galveston.  I found a computer, a toy chest, electric outlets, shoes, and plastic, plastic, plastic.  It made me renew my commitment to buy as little plastic as possible….there was no end of the horrid stuff littering the beaches for miles.  It was an odd feeling to see these pieces of people’s homes tossed so indiscriminately and deposited on this wild stretch of beach.

For educational supplementation, I took the boys to see the replica of Columbus’ ship, Nina, which sits on the Corpus Christi Bay waterfront in downtown.

 More in Part 2……..