Thursday, August 11, 2011

July 2011 Road Trip VI: Eugene to Salem


Morning under the apple tree, time to run again. I also ran in the summer of too much chemistry (actually I really enjoyed classes), so I retraced some familiar routes. Mild dissociation: while the geography of streets was the same, so many of the houses had changed. An abundance of Sunset magazine influenced flower-rich yards, different shops on Friendly Avenue. I listened, but felt no echoes of myself at 20. A quick 3.9 miles, back to the apple tree.

A long morning in Eugene. A cousin’s second birthday party. He liked the balloons. Planning with my sister: my aunt was to be busy with medical stuff, so we were free to proceed out of Eugene. I wanted to visit my friends Bruce and Daisy in Salem.

I know Bruce and Daisy from my Aikido San Leandro. They moved to Salem oh, seven years ago, and have settled in well. We had a lovely visit. It was fun to see their house, be inspired by their gardening, and meet Ollie, their Jack Russell terrier. Ollie provided my dog fix for the rest of the year. Once he had calmed (on the JR scale) to something slower than a furry growling blur, I had a great time throwing his toys and basically playing dog for a while.

Bruce teaches Aikido in Salem. He invited me to train and teach a class. I was initially unsure about participating. I’m on sabbatical from Aikido at present; my path currently lies with the subtle powerful energies of qi gong and tai chi quan. My intuition said to go. I had a great time. Bruce has good students. It was smooth and rewarding to mildly integrate my internal current practices into training and teaching. 

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