On the Road with Jack: December 2021

Jack & Oscar, Garden Court, Dec 2021

Season’s Greetings!

Earlier this month while walking Oscar we headed east and suddenly I noticed the Cascade Mountains covered in snow, their peaks glowing in the distance. I gasped in awe since several days earlier, before the storms of the past weekend, the peaks were bare.

That sense of wonder still delights me all these years later. I arrived in Seattle in 1986 and am in awe of all the changes, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. The past 21 months have been tough on Seattle’s downtown and on our neighborhoods where homeless camps engulf parks and other public places. The CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest Zone) stood only 5 blocks from my home. And yet there is still a resilience, a beauty, that I discover on my walks with Oscar.

Staying present to the small things, like the squirrels foraging nuts, who I swear egg Oscar into chasing them. Or the orange-red berries dangling from a bush on a grey November day. Or the person without shelter who smiles at me when I acknowledge them on an early December morning. Encountering poverty, the poor of spirit, on my street corner, has not been an easy thing to stomach or sweep under the rug.

And yet again I am grateful for the blessings that I have received in my own life. I continue to work my “day job” at a behavioral research center at the University of Washington’s Department of Psychiatry. While theatre was pretty much silent until the past few months, I was lucky to snag several well-paying commercial gigs this year that allowed me to continue to stay engaged in creative pursuits. The last month I have begun querying agents about the coming-of-age memoir I spent the past 12 years writing, shaping, revising, improving with the help of a supportive writer’s group. It’s a challenging endeavor to get published, but I gotta try! Promise me you’ll buy at least one copy if I “make it.”

Oscar the dog continues to make inroads into my heart, testing my patience and my sense of self. He is much barkier than I expected when I adopted him last February and when I say “calm” anticipating his lizard-like prelude will lead to an all-out Woooof, I am using “calm” not only for him but for me too. We live overlooking a courtyard where residents of my condo come and go with their dogs so certain canines set Oscar off. And when he starts to woof, it’s hard for his little body to stop. But we are making headway. We will be taking a yoga and meditation class together starting next month (just kidding😉)

I hope this finds you in good spirits, good health, good in all ways. Family or friend (they are often interchangeable) I am grateful for our connection and that we continue to keep it.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!