Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. For a photo gallery of our life on the road, our pets, and miscellaneous things I find interesting, you can follow me on Instagram @tabithalord.
So here are this week’s five things, starting with the quote of the week…
"Integrity is the essence of everything successful." - Buckminster Fuller
We just spent a few weeks in Portland, Oregon and then took a couple of days to trek down the coast to SoCal where we’ll be for the next few months. Portland, despite propaganda to the contrary, is not in fact ‘war torn.’ We spent a fabulous day at the Saturday market, which was filled with art, crafts, food, and music. During our time there, we also listened to live music, ate fantastic farm to table food, and enjoyed the view of Mt. Hood on sunny days. Our daughter, who lives downtown, walks everywhere, throws rooftop garden parties, teaches music and sings at all sorts of fun venues, and camps and hikes regularly with her group of friends. It’s a fabulous, quirky city with fabulous, quirky people. Stay weird and stay safe, Portland.
Although we were hustling to get here, we did stop and stay near Mount Shasta. I remember when Mount St. Helens erupted back in 1980, so getting a close up look at Shasta, also a potentially active volcano, was really cool and slightly unsettling. Over 14,000 feet, Shasta is the second largest mountain in the Cascades. For comparison, St. Helens was 9677 ft before it erupted and 8363 afterwards. Shasta was quite the sight for sure!
Being in SoCal again is great. Aside from all the cool things to do here, we’re able to meet up with our kids for brunch or dinner, or plan a day together. We took a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu, and the destruction from the fires is still pretty awful. Reconstruction is well underway, but the loss was truly devastating.
We’re still missing our kitty. It was hard to leave the last place she was with us and arrive somewhere without her. Her sweet personality and loving soul were a constant, gentle presence in our tiny space. Anyone who has lost a beloved pet knows how hard it is to let them go and how empty it feels when they are gone. We’re still having some very big feelings around here, and I suspect we will for a while, but our daughter reminded us that we’re hurting so badly because we were blessed to love her so much.