Life begins anew... studying

Argghhh. I just wrote a small blog and it disappeared in my cut and paste options... Oy.

Here are some pictures from the campus of Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Washington State. This is my home for the next year and eight months, as I embark on an amazing program to earn a Masters in Environmental Education and a certificate in non-profit administration. The program involves a one-year residency at the North Cascades Institute, in the heart of the National Park with the same name.

There are many opportunities for me to create, research, learn and practice many elements of non-profit work and experiential education. As this is the field for me, it is a matter of checking out the many facets and fine-tuning my abilities and interests. I am in a good place.


View from the student union, looking at Bellingham Bay... with one of the San Juan Islands in the background

View of the main administration building, lost in and among Douglas Fir

The main plaza of campus. Lots of construction in the summer because the weather is nice and there are fewer students

Some more buildings... the one under construction is the home of the Environmental Studies department

One of the walkways on campus, and one of the many statues around also

Cutlure shock is hard

I just wrote something that I accidentally erased. It is probably for the better. I am having a hard time adjusting to America. It's because, in part, I can't take any of it too seriously. Per usual, I just laugh at all of the silliness... that is, before I get caught up and all emotional about it! May the "I don't get it" phase continue. Here are some pictures of being back in North America.

Two weeks old, Chick Hearn statue in front of Staples Center (LA)... during the Suns/Lakers series.

Sunset from Grandma and Saba's back yard. I forgot how much the sun can move... in February it is significantly more to the left (south).

My awesome brother Jake (left) who left me stay at his place on my move up to Washington. He even let me have his bed for the night... what a guy!

On the 1, south of Big Sur, just north of San Simeon. I love the smell of the sage on the hill... and listening to the waves crash into the rocks below... and those enormous kelp forests that are totally visible from above!

Next posts will have pictures of Crater Lake, OR and from my balcony in Bellingham, WA.

I thought this blog was over...

...but it has only changed forms. As I have an outlet to get some emotions out, I probably will. It is nice having Internet at home. It had been a long time indeed. But I know that I don't NEED it. And that is reassuring... it is only a tool for my convenience. Period.

I moved from Japan on May 16th, two months after my last post. Then, I got used to English slightly and road-tripped up the entire West Coast to Bellingham, Washington where I will spend the next two years. From San Diego to here... nearly 1500 miles. Or 1700 miles. I forget. Probably the former. Across the country... northways.

Culture shock is really hard. EVERYTHING here is in English. We Americans love to talk about ourselves. Often we just talk for the sake of talking... to fill in beautiful silence with garbage words because the beauty of the moment is frightening. If we practiced enjoying the moment, we might speak less or speak less nonsense. Maybe this happened in Japan too, but I didn't understand it. In fact, I know it happened there too, but I could pretend I didn't understand. Here I get sucked in to filling in space with words.

I say "we" earlier. I include myself. I am an American. And I really love America... this place is incredible. Yeah, far from perfect. And a perfect place is actually boring and not human. So, I say it again. I love America. Whether or not to live here permanently is only a matter of the winds... but I truly love it here and love the potential this country has for greatness and love what DOES work. I even love what doesn't work, because it gives so many people room to grow into those spots to fix the not-so-good parts. I love America.

I miss Japan a lot. And it is hard for me now because I have been really out of it for three years. Really. I caught up with some great people in the past three weeks and it has been wonderful. We have really all gone such different directions. I can't imagine doing what they're doing and i can't imagine them doing what I do. And that we could fill in after a three-year absence made me very happy. Family members too! They all accept me for the strange fellow that I am, and I can accept them for the people they are. I know this sounds very general, and it is... but it is how I can put it into words... in English!

Accepting the addiction

Maybe the time has finally come. My addiction to traveling is slowing down. It's hard to describe exactly what "traveling" is. Perhaps it is physically moving one's body from place to place. Some have claimed it is a state of mind that keeps one forever wandering and exploring. Others say it is more like "being" in the present moment. But, my original title for this blog seems to have been lost on me as of late.

It was sort of created on the fly... during or between one of my tromps to South America or driving all over California or the desert Southwest. I am lost about my own history now as the years of moving have begun to blur together. Even recently, my Japanese years are blending together and I realize that I have indeed been here for years. This has not been an escapade putzing around in some far away la-la-land... an adventure without purpose.

It may have started like that, but in the adventure and settling down in the adventure, I have come to terms with something new. This IS life... not just a part of it. Sure it is a chapter, but it is altogether real and important. I have come to terms with what makes me tick, I have mapped out my dreams and I am excited to get started with them.

Years ago, my grandmother laughed at me and said, "Get it out of your system, Dave. One day you will settle down and appreciate your life even more for having spent all of that energy." Maybe not exactly in those words, but I couldn't fathom the truth she was speaking. I reckoned that I would be young forever, always on the move and exploring to my heart's content.

I will always be young forever (and handsome too, might I add!) but this youth is taking on a new form. It is still vibrant, full of life, and looking at the world with open eyes- like those of the 14-year-olds who I watched graduate from Myojo Jr High today. (I took the day off to attend the graduation ceremony at the school at which I used to teach.) But the constant need to move and cover ground is falling by the wayside. I think it is because I have exhausted quite a bit of my energy to do so. It seems that my life is beginning to resemble that prophecy that I tried to discard.

I will always love traveling, exploring and seeing new places, but I am yearning for a change... which embodies characteristics of a different nature. It is hard for me to come to terms with it all because it is so foreign to the way I have been living for the past ten years... but it feels good and natural to be slowing down and focusing on staying put a little more.

I won't jump to conclusions, but I think I have accepted my addiction to traveling. And it has "cured" itself. Like I wrote above, it is a problem that I will have my entire life, but in accepting it, I have learned to live with it- not to fight or resist it, but to love it for what it is. I can't expect to have control of it, but it no longer has control of me either. It is an impulse and a feeling, one that has run my life for as long as I can remember.

But now, as this addiction still beats through my veins, with every pump of my heart, it serves as but only a guide... to guide my thoughts and actions to listen to that very heart... the heart that encourages me, in every passionate moment that I am gifted, to live and to love.