Beauty beyond the Periphery

It is a beautiful day and I am in love. Life here on Lopez Island is full of peace and a rhythmic regularity that involves beautiful landscapes, friendly connections with unique people, good food, and those soothing and stimulating moments throughout your week that continue to amaze the psyche. These moments involve people and settings that are particular to Lopezian way of life. There are the children who remember you at the Farmer's Market, the friendships that seem to blossom and deepen with age, and even the business connections that are personal and matter on a specific level resulting from participating in a community where one knows so many faces.

 I am content with life in the Islands. On Mondays I am so lucky to venture to Orcas Island where I attend a yoga class and therapy. Next door to my yoga studio, the Island just opened a new Food Coop, the parks are ever rejuvenating, and I slowly am adding faces to my repertoire there as well. The landscape varies from Lopez Island with greater hills, more island mass and thicker evergreens stretching up from the rocky earth.

 I feel our Island communities encourage us to pay attention to detail. God is in the details, I have heard people say. When you live in a small place such as this, and there is not a huge amount of activity or events, you get to know your neighbors and environment on an ever more personal level. After a time, one begins to care about all the little things that may go unnoticed in other communities. Locals are invested and involved in the land, individuals, and local businesses in a way I have never experienced before. People care on such a deep level spending hours supporting local non-profits, sewing quilts for their friends, and even picking up trash voluntarily on the road side.

I settled on this Island seven years ago with my two dogs, Kira and Rudy. Now I am graced with ‘mothering’ the special souls of my current dogs, Lionel and Bruce. I did not know if I intended on spending the rest of my life surrounded by these waters and nestled among the fragrant madronas, honey suckle and blackberries, yet I have no intention of leaving the boundless beauty of Lopez currently. I hope to be here a couple decades from now, with a large garden to call my own, and friends that I have had for forty years and stretching. The Island is a dream for me, has helped me mature, grow and heal in ways that I never imagined possible. My entire nuclear family is here now, and we hope to soon expand our numbers by one. Bless my sister, mom and dad, Steve and all of the lovely and beautiful people in my life, rough and soft, all beauteous in their pureness and individuality. Lopez is an epic dream, the subtleties have changed me. Sometimes it is beyond one’s peripheral vision that true discoveries are made… it just takes slowing down to really look.