Vacation at Home

McLaren Park

Love our Lake (Merritt)

 

 

I saw it in the 96 Hours section of the Thursday Chronicle. Founded in 1934, it is the second largest park in San Francisco, (after Golden Gate Park), and I had never been there! I grabbed my soul sister, hiker/explorer, Ann Cromey, and away we went in search of adventure. 

The article detailed a 2.7 mile loop, coined Philosophers' Way, including “14 musing stations that invite hiker’s introspection, several benches overlooking a meadow and ocean view and a bowl made from stone that catches runoff from nearby hills.” We carefully tried to follow the directions in the article, but alas, we didn’t see any of the musing stations or any stone bowls catching any runoff. We did, however, see the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, a modern kind of weird structure, albeit kind of cool, mainly because of its name.

 

 

 

We found a perfect place for lunch in the sun and out of the wind and spread out the same lunches we have every time; Ann with her cheese and red pepper sandwich and carrot sticks; me with my half savory, half PB&J sandwich, fruit and pretzels.

 

 

 

She is a friend with a compassionate ear and much wisdom and I decided to chance the big question that comes to visit me every few years: 

Am I doing enough with my life? 

Am I using my gifts? Am I underemployed? Should I have a more challenging, higher paying, prestigious job? (We discarded that one pretty quickly.) Ok, then should I be trekking in Nepal? Maybe I should be parlaying my love for music and become a concert promoter or a chooser of songs for edgy TV programs? What is my big, overriding passion? Should I be turning this blog into a book somehow? Maybe I should be living in a bigger house in Montana? Am I missing out on anything I’m supposed to be doing? Oh, how this question eats at me relentlessly, this question of measuring up to God’s will for my life. 

Wait a minute! God wants me to be happy. These “bad thoughts” are not God’s thoughts. God doesn’t want me to feel restless, dissatisfied and discontent with myself. In fact, God would like for me to quit picking on myself! God created me! 

Ann was my angel that day in McLaren Park, high above the city, assuring me of the path I have chosen, decisions I have made and the ways I am already living out my gifts. Thank the good God for friends who love me and care about me. Friends with whom I can be real. How we need each other, we humans! 

Gratitude is my answer. And realizing that I have lots of passions, they’re just quieter; reading, reading, reading, writing, reading some more about mountain climbers, hiking, spirituality, studying human nature, music, hot spots, restaurants, gathering people and creating experiences.

Rob says it’s about doing what you believe to be quality regardless of what anyone else thinks and finding that part of yourself that creates that and trusting it.

So is staying adventurous and curious and going to places like McLaren Park and visiting our own Lake Merritt with friends and celebrating new pedestrian bridges and the Love our Lake festival, and duck life, (including the frazzle headed teenagers), and the gondolas and gazing at the haunted light of a Bay Area fog-rolling-in-cool summer evening and . . . staying on vacation at home - - forever.

http://oaklavia.org/

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