For the third year in a row I have elected to spend my Spring Break escaping the normal sunny getaways for drearier destinations. This year – Portland and Seattle. I arrived in Portland last Saturday, and by the time I left earlier this morning, the rain had hardly let up even for a moment. This gave me all the reasons to do exactly what I wanted to do in the first place: sit in coffee shops, read, journal, and simply be still. The pace at which school keeps me moving gives me the sensation that I am loosing myself in a whirr of activity. In many ways this break is a reminder to myself of my humanity.
My first night in Portland I stayed in a hostel with some Chinese students and some really old dude who made funny noises in his sleep. The place was nice and agreeable, but I was not up for another night’s stay. I had plans to stay with Josh, Holly, and Aiden again. However, they had been battling some illnesses. Holly caught the flu the day I arrived and recommended that I stay away. For the time, I thought I might be stranded, but an old college friend, Marcus Siddhartha, came to the rescue.
I did not realize Marcus was currently living in Portland, but he welcomed me into his home on short notice and treated me with the finest hospitality. He even insisted that I continue my stay when he went out of town on Tuesday. I am certainly indebted to him for his kindness. It was great to be back with a college friend. When he was not working we discussed life, how things were going for him, and about his family back in Sri Lanka. We ate great food and shared some local brews.
I am now in Seattle and the city looks very inviting. The sky is a little bluer than Portland but certainly grayer than Phoenix. I am trying out something I have never done before – Couch Surfing. For those of you who do not know, Couch Surfing is a way to find places to stay while traveling. It is free and simply requires that you make an online profile on the Couch Surfing website. From there you can contact other hosts and make arrangements to stay on their couches. Many Couch Surfers seem to make a point that they are interested in the relational aspect of the stay, and not just the free couch. Therefore, people in this community make an effort to have interesting and engaging conversations when together. I like this focus and am looking forward to getting to know the people I am staying with. Thus far they are very generous and live in a great location just east of the city.
In my moments of silence and stillness I have been thinking a great deal about the end of my commitment with TFA and what my future holds. The thought-provoking, albeit tedious and dense, book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has aided in confronting some of the questions I have been pondering recently about the right balance between care of self and care of others. I feel like in service-minded-jobs people can easily become martyrs to the cause. I do not know how much this benefits the cause in the long run, but it has been something heavy on my mind. Where I go (if I go) and what I do next will not be without significant thought. Intentionality. But more on that later…
