Arrival in Seattle

I arrived in Seattle in the middle of one of the worst snow storms of Seattle. Apart from being blown off course with rides and walks, appointments and schedules, I've also found myself blown off course from what I was planning about 2 years ago. It's all about change within the familiar landscape that we impose ourselves upon.

Trudging through the icy sidewalks on that dark wintry night, I dragged my heavy luggage through the all too familiar cross-stitched map of the University District. The roads didn't change, the light patterns remained the same, and Jack-in-the-Box's sign still sat upright on the corner of 50th and the Ave. The only noticeable change was the absence of all life in the quest to stay warm in a town unknown for snowstorms of this magnitude.

The days passed slowly yet happily, I felt that a goal had neared accomplishment, that I'd finally reached where I was headed for 5 years ago. That doesn't say much since it has been pretty much a full circle from where I began 5 years ago on the steps of my shared apartment 8 blocks from where I now reside, but sometimes we just operate in circles, spinning back to where we began.

Apart from a few construction zones that weren't present over a year ago, it's eerily so familiar. I've come back to friends that had long changed beyond notice, yet their appearance was not so different from before. What is the value in their change? How do I measure our accomplishments and failures? How are our lives weighted on the scales?

I wondered that very hard for the few blocks it took to get from Hotel Deca up to near Cowen. And that's about it, I wondered, and it remained unanswered.

All the options, all the possibilities that seem endless at every corner in life now seem to multiply in front of me. Every time I hear another doubt or insecurity, another fifty options lines up. You might be wondering what kind of opportunities I could possibly be exploring, after all, aren't I still searching like my new clique of floaters? It's the opportunity to get by every doubt that has been expressed, because an obstacle is there because it can be overcome. Obstacles impede, they don't produce dead ends.

I write this at a moment of hope and possibility. Perhaps after a couple of months of reflection I'll come to more pessimistic and down-trodden viewpoint of the misery of unemployment in a time of downturn. But why foresee misery when it's always just around the corner? I'm enjoying my new savor the moment kick, and hopefully I can persuade more people to take appreciation of the simple pleasures of life. We'll see if the simple things in life are really the most important...