misplaced mama

Some tings and tings that have made my stay delightful.

1o. Libbey Park

Here is a park in the middle of town, smack in the middle. I have been going a few times a week since arriving here so Mia, my social butterfly, could make friends (and she has made many). Oak groves, good size squirel populations, variety of sturdy, top- o- the- line play structures. The best part is that it’s a stones throw from a great local coffee shop, a few blocks to the grocery store, and next to the post office. Small town. But the cool thing is I rarely even see the same people when I go here. It’s a small town with a people flow– lots of movement— so in my 6 weeks here nothing has seemed stagnant. I suppose a 10 or 15 tear stay I might think differently. But the coolest thing about it is that the archways that lead you into the park has a a log-work shade roof (I guess that’s what it’s called) and looong ago when Bill worked for IDF Scenery Shop in L.A. the owner hired him to come up to Ojai and construct all the logwork above these arches. Everytime we go to this park Mia proudly announces: My Daddy built those logs!

1. Rainbow Bridge So you might very well need a trust fund to shop here regularly, but damn I love this store. I could walk the aisles forever. The women in the vitamin section are so knowledgable about herbs and homeopathy and general healing…who needs an MD? The best part of this store is that the same owner of the set shop who hired Bill to do the log work also got him the gig to come and build all the sheves and signs for this market. His hands have touched most of the wood in this place so everytime we go in there I can sense his craft and his energy circles around the food.

8.The Farmer and The Cook What they don’t grow on their farms they get from other local farms in the valley. Each day of the week they make one special plate and 2 soups along with grilled veggie and egg salad sammies. And besides a little organic salad bar that’s all this restaurant serves so everything is so fresh. Everything organic. Local produce, eggs and cheese…maybe even grains. Damn best chai tea I have ever had. Vegan and wheat-free baked good that taste like real yummy stuff–date-poppy muffins, chocolate espresso scones, oatmeal cookies.

1. Wheeler Hot Springs A drive down Maricopa highway, a steep yet quick walk down to the riverbank and hop over some rocks and you’ll find some great hotsprings. I feel cleaner, healthier, sexier, more powerful after a sunset or sunrise soak. Unfortunatley it’s too hard to go with just me and the girls so hurry up and come visit me so we can go! Warm water therapy.

2. The 2 waterholes found along the river behind my place. They are deep, like diving under deep. Clean. Refreshing. A rope hangs above both of them and just a swing and jump into the crsip river water can change your attitude for the entire day. Week. Year. Cold water therapy. I feel like I am in Cambodia or Costa Rica. It’s a slice of paradise. One night my four goddess girlfriends, my kids and myself did a moonlit hike down for quick splash. We jumped in and played like nymphs. Mia sat along the side on a rock, too cold to jump in but with a look of awe on her face as she stared at us for an hour, watching us play. Four naked women (yes, photos posted soon of this because it is too lovely and poweful not to share) yelping and screaming and hollering and chanting and developing our own primal calls with goosbumps and blue lips and hard nipples. Invigorated. I hope this is a memory engraved in her psyche forever. And ever. I hope someday she will dive naked in cold fresh water under the Solstice moon with a circle of friends whom we are not scared to call eachother Witch. (I do hope she forgets the loud packs of coyotes that we had to race away from on our hike back, though).

3. Betty Lou’s North Shore Smackers Organic dark chocolate. 1000 ml of spirulina. Sounds weird but it is just delightful. Sweet. No refined sugar. Almond butter. Sesame butter. It’s a sweet treat I like to eat and give to my Mia. Green chocoalte. Yum. I am going to start buying them bulk and freezing them. I found them at The Farmer And The Cook and have munched their entire stock all up.

4. Polomo The magestic and kind 12 year old white horse Mia and I have been riding. At first we rode him together and everything was in perfect universal sync for that first moment he started move underneath us and we caught on with his rhythm. All the dreams I had about being a mother and sharing remarkable moments with my daughter became a reality. I had envisioned this long before she was even growing in my womb. I will ride horses with my daughter. After our first tandem ride she demanded to ride him alone. She mounted him with little help. Gave him a slight ‘get going’ signal and they trotted along, like they were old friends. She even figured out how to steer within minutes. At one point she turned her head to look behind her, at me, and just gave me a little smirk, somewhere between ‘look at me now and I have no fear.” That tiny little bean on the mammouth creature. It was awesome.

5. The People, especially my newest mama-friend, Jessica Warm. Inviting. Interesting. Interested. People here are succeeding because of who they are not despite of who they are. Here I don’t t feel like I have to take a stand in my beliefs or be defensive in how I birth, vote, parent. How I eat, or recreate, what I wear, or listen to. It’s not like everyone is ‘the same’, I would say the opposite. And as far as California mountain towns go you get a WIDE range of what is defined as “red-neck”. You got your Tibetan prayer flag home right next to your American flag home and the great thing is I see no fence seperating those 2 yards. You have your L.A. transplats and your born and raised elite-class. You have your local farmers and ranvhers keeping it local. You have your artists and your wabi-sabi ragga-muffin folks just wanting a town to ride a bike around in. You have your famous actors trying to live a bit smaller than L.A. But everyone seems so open to whatever you may be. As long as you let them be. It feels comfy here, a place like this I could call home. And not to slight the community I have found in AZ…because I have met some sparkling gems there. But there is a greatness of a tight valley, 3 miles wide and around 20 miles long packed with good people. Where I live we are all so far away.

6. The Ocean My inspiration. My muse. My spirit. My womb. I spent a healing day riding the waves with 2 of my mermaid friends. Usually I am slightly scared of the waves– I like to stand back and hold each bubble with the reverance it deserves, just witness the greatness of the curve and the arch and the crash. But this magnificant day we let the men watch the kids and we washed our tired mama bodies away with divinity of sea. We washed away past moments spent in regret or sadness. We washed away fears and scars. We cleansed ourselves of desert dirt and became goddess with pearl toes and seaweed hair. As my daughters watched from the beach I can only hope they felt the empowerment of Sirens at play. And I got to sing my song for Sula to Sula as the waves splashed over her little brown berry feet: You’re a gift from the ocean, a treasure of the sea, a blessing from the water straight to me.

7. This sacred Chumash land and the 3 Chumash Chiefs whose faces (with tears) I can see engraved in the Mountains north of where I sit. The word Ojai means either moon or nest in Chumash. And it has been both to me. It has been like the moon: water, wet, fertile, silvery and mysterious. Why have I been called here and why does this place make me feel so pregnant with light?It has been a nest for my birdlike ways…as I always want to defy gravity and fly away, leave my body and look down and flutter through space and time. But I could cozy up here and nest forever (with some international exploration here and there of course).

ites!

ps- it seems as if there is a great conspiracy. i can’t seem to post an image or link to one. sorry. no matter what i try works. soon i will figure it out.