Fremont, CA
It's been almost a month of us coming back to Fremont from Chicago. Time continues to pass quickly. We came back to bad air and a lot of California burning. Raj wrote about all the changing plans but I want to focus on what we've been up to the past few weeks.
We've been staying with Raj's parents. We wore masks the first few days and then Raj got tested for COVID. When we had gotten back, between the air quality, fires burning and politics, a negative test and not needing to wear a mask in the house was a small win. We got to meet up with some friends. Amaani made friends with two girls across the street, Sachi and Suri and that's been a true joy to watch. This whole year we wanted the intention to be in community and around other kids. As quarantining continues, the socialization aspect and her being around other kids has been hard. So her naturally forming these friendships was beautiful.
Everyday, they came over in the afternoon and just played. They made slime almost every single day. They did art, they made up a game of Peep, LOL land, and water play. They played together and they played independently. Sachi loves reading and any book she saw, she sat and read. I definitely think it motivated Amaani to start trying her hand at reading as well. It was one of my favorite parts of Fremont watching them learn and play together.
Raj and I had been wanting to get in a meditation retreat and couldn't get into the Vipassana centers. He found this place and it was perfect. (If you're looking for a Staycation.. check out this place. And Moina, the owner, is awesome.. and she has another larger guesthouse, too. We left Amaani with the parents and set up a 2 day meditation retreat that followed the Vipassana schedule. I had been out of the practice and these retreats are always a good reminder in how to sit again. We stayed silent with each other and meditated away. Being on a farm felt like we were away. Lots of walks around the area. Taking the time to silent the mind is always good. No huge revelations for us but it was a good reset. Then we stayed two more nights and Amaani joined us. She loved the animals. We met a cat on one of our hikes that seems to be a famous cat. All the hikers know the cat.
We then planned a mini getaway to Capitola with the parents and Ami and the kiddos. They haven't been out of the house since all this started. We rented a hotel and just had some nice family time. We went to the Forest of Nisene State Parks twice and we all loved it. The redwoods were majestic. Someone had set up a swing over the creek and we all took a turn. One of our themes this year is ongoing connection to Mother Earth and watching kids naturally light up in the forest is incredible. Our nephews are 9 and 7 and Amaani is 5. They ran around and made up their own games. Created a fortress with all the different tree stumps. We tested out our bike stand for the car and had all our bikes there. Bike rides, beach and of course lots of food.
We are headed out tomorrow. Our plan is to eventually get to Sequim, Washington but we are going to camp along the way. We've packed for so many different situations because we just don't know what we'll end up doing. Definitely some doubt in the purpose of the trip but rolling with it. I think my intentions is to continue to working on mindfulness, reading, exercising and connections to others. I would like to possibly get some get out the vote postcards. I liked Raj's recap in taking this time to be able to work on ourselves to continue to serve and love the community and in our ongoing work.
If you guys have any suggestions on things to watch or read to be inspired, please do share.
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