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jbd

"I HAVE SAND SKILLS" said the 3-year old

My mother lives minutes away from Chambers Bay, a jaw-droppingly spectacular golf course set on gently rolling hills that drop down straight over Puget Sound.  To merely call it picturesque would be to miss the point. It's a 24-7 meditation in action. Simply being there  is more like surfing than anything I've ever done. Now, especially when it's cold, it is an immersion in divine creation, a veritable baptism in beauty and the elements of earth, air, water and the fire of the setting sun.

I already love it and so does Ashton.

Long before we moved down the road from Chambers Bay, one of Ashton's favorite books was a hand-me-down from his sister called "My First Golf Book."  Discarded clubs, balls and tees  frequently littered our backyard in Culver City and he's gone through more drivers and putters in three years than I have in a lifetime. Still, it didn't occur to me how blessed we were to have come here until I brought Ashton to our local course for the first time last week.

It was his first opportunity to visit a real-live golf shop and he went bananas with glee. Brandon, the guy behind the counter, ended up lending him a perfectly sized 7-iron and some balls to for the short game range.

That was Sunday and we golfed until the sun went down.

Monday and Tuesday were Brandon's days off, but we returned today to discover that he had set aside "Ashton's club" in case we returned. Then he drove us down to the range in the shuttle and Ashton chipped away at a bag of balls and practiced his sand skills in the traps.

The sky turned yellow, then gold, then gaudy pink and we caught the last shuttle up the hill, nearly numb with cold but exhilarated with adventure.

Never - in a thousand or a million years - did I think this move would leave me standing on a world-class golf course over the Puget Sound considering I may have found my new hobby. But there you go. Life is full of surprises.

We May Be On To Something

Of course, when we told people we were moving from Los Angeles to Washington State, they had an idea why. A more relaxed pace, cleaner, more breathable air, and the outdoorsy lifestyle that brought me and Brian together in the first place. Plus my mom.

The part I told some people, but not everybody, was this...I was going crazy in Los Angeles. For the usual reasons, yes, but for some more unusual ones as well.

Home schooling itself was a challenge.  But then there was the reason I'd started home schooling in the first place: a daughter possessed of a highly intense and idiosyncratic intelligence, coupled with a seemingly never-ending variety of behavioral and health challenges.

Sleeplessness. Lack of appetite. Obstinacy. Irritability. Frightening bouts of hysteria, or tantrums, or something, during which she would be completely overcome by uncontrollable emotions. We saw it all.

Except when she was outdoors. Except when she was in the natural world she loves: the creeks, trees, animals, insects, winds and rains that always calm  her down and bring out her mellow side.

While still in LA, Brian and I visited with Deena Metzger, poet, healer and "wise woman." We were overwhelmed and confused - about Trinity as well as about the direction our lives were taking. She asked if we would consider relocating to a more natural setting for Trinity's sake. We said yes.

Tonight, she took her first bath in months. Over the last few years, she'd developed an often paralyzing fear of water due to the painful abrasions and rashes that plagued her skin. Consequently, she rarely bathed. Tonight, she said, she took the best bath of her life and wants to take a bath every night if she can.

Then she added that maybe all her fears were just associations with life in Los Angeles and that "In my new life, I love the water and my trauma is gone. This is the new chapter of my life. If my life was a video game. I  moved to the next level."

You really had to be there. But that was the main idea.