Ojala, Sweet Ojala

I find it very difficult to return home from a vacation. It's always the same.

On holiday, you seek clarity and find it - suddenly your brain makes space for all the thoughts once crowded inside. Suddenly, your imagination has a voice. You make a goal: to relax. Relaxed you are: waking up late from restful slumbers, forgetful that hours and minutes once determined your days, slowing your pace from a bullet-like speed to a leisurely sail.

Nearing the end of your vacation, you claim ownership over this new way of being. This new You! You think, I can beat the system! I can carry these feelings of calm, stillness and awareness with me wherever I go! Wow, this vacation really worked! With the coming week (not on vacation) in full loom (that's loom, not bloom), you vow to keep these feelings close. Nothing's going to get in my way...

Fast forward...and I mean Fast. You pack up your things, turn in your key and return home. You go to sleep, you wake up and there you are: cracked out on coffee, zooming along with the morning commute. What vacation? Like I said, I find it very difficult to return home from a vacation. It's especially challenging to come home from a vacation when the time you've spent away has been in Ojai.

Well, in this moment, I'm happy to keep close the weekend I spent at Ojala in Ojai with Liz. Some highlights:





The charm of the front porch in the morning. It was the Love Shack that made me fall in love with incense last New Years...now I burn Sandlewood at my place every chance I get. The wood burning fire...it's not quite the same when I put my heater on in San Fran, but I can pretend.












Soaking in the goodness on the Cozy Dell Trail - reminds me of all the amazing hikes we have in the Bay Area.







Yum. Breakfast at the Farmer and the Cook followed by a visit to their farm...





It's hard to recreate that anywhere else...but for the past few days I've been cooking with the produce I bought at their farmer's market stand. Ojai feeds the soul...as does any farmer's market! I'll have to go to the Noe Valley one on Saturday.





Liz does a head stand at Meditation Mount. The great thing about yoga and meditation is that you can take it with you. It's not limited to a temple, a teacher, a studio or a mat. That's what I love about the practice.







Happy December! Heading back North from Ojai, Liz and I took the mountainous, high-altitude route - and what do you know! Snow! I won't be finding much of that in the Mission District but that's fine with me. Besides our lack of snow, I think I can keep the Ojai goodness with me as long as I chose. One city, another city. One weekend, the next. There is Ojai, sweet Ojai, and there is Poem, Sweet Poem. This is life, and as far I'm concerned - it's all good.