Chance = Change

The guests were delighted, mostly by the charming way we were so obviously embarrassed..i mean, we had just written it...and had not actually quite finished it...so we fumbled and failed a lot, but it was such a warm congenial evening, it was all part of the fun. A terrific evening altogether, at a charming Noe Valley home, hosted by two superbly gifted men, professionals in business and healing arts, yet one is deeply accomplished pianist (so good, it made me want to sing!) and the other a video artist in his spare time...i mean, this town is filled with these sorts of souls: complex, interesting, involved...another thing to be grateful for: the diversity and fascination in the people who live here.

This entire evening was a panoply San Francisco-style family and love: men who'd once shared lives, the women they also loved and had children with, enriched by the presences of these amazing kids, as well as the new lovers sharing life with them all! I mean, as I formulate the ideas for my book about my family of friends and lovers, these new friends so deepen my experience of the entire topic: family in the 21st century and its potential to heal and teach us all how to truly love....

Every day I have spent here so far - in this new city we call home - the more i learn and appreciate what it has to teach me.  Each walk is an art exhibition...each sitting on a bench to breathe it in, a meditation session....each errand-run , an amazing discovery of new delights....and the people we meet are all so very friendly, warm and helpful, as if they are delighted to share their love of their city with us newcomers.  There is indeed a gentleness in the air here, even the December air, and whatever the cause of it is: this feels like a City of Love, as the hippies used to extol....The old phrase about "Hope Springing Eternal"?  I feel it whenever I walk out into the fresh soft air of San Francisco, because there is such moderation in it, such soft promise and ...well, again I say: gentleness.  It's always surprising NOT to be hit with sharp cold, knowing as my mind does that it is indeed December...instead, we see palm trees and feel that Hope i mentioned above....not the deadness of Winter, but the Life of possibilities ahead.  .....every time I leave a store or a restaurant, or come outside to walk the dogs, there it is: this soft shock of soft air and the inviting caress of breezes off the Bay.  

What a blessed time this is.