Well, okay, one thing that did hold up in terms of what I have heard about L.A. was the traffic…..driving the RV through with all of the fancy cars zipping in and out was so stressful for Peter (I was in the scout car ahead, walkie-talkie-ing directions and lane changes back to him). The intensity really wore him down. It just seemed that we kept driving and driving and driving through L.A., and I wondered when it would ever end. I am told that the population is 23 million in the 100 square mile area around Los Angeles; I have never seen or felt such a populated and sprawling place in my life.
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.
What was more interesting to me is that the place we were guided to was very close to the Getty Center, which was our only destination desire while in the L.A. area, and a couple of miles from a new friend and soul sister, Joan Norton, who is also a channel and a devotee of the Sacred Feminine and holy union of Divine Masculine and Feminine energies. I love how guidance works!
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.
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 stay 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 3rd 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….
