The Power of Basic Love

I had a powerful, powerful dream tonight about the profound effect that something so simple as love can have in fighting ignorance and fear - which, to me, are one in the same.  I won't get into the details, but the dream started off as rather disturbing, but quickly transformed into something beautiful and empowering on a basic soul level.  In the end, I woke up feeling more inspired than I was when I went to sleep...and that's a nice thing!

Austin

Sometimes it seems as though life goes in circles spiritually. It's a journey that waxes and wanes, much like the luminous moon high up in the chilly night sky. At times, you think you're approaching some life-changing epiphany, and just when you think you're on the very brink of discovery, something happens to remind you that you never really left home plate to begin with.

So, after about 13 years of traveling and living all over the United States, I can honestly say without a doubt that I'm finally settling into a space in my little life where I feel like I'm going to stay put for a while. Tell me a year ago that this would soon be happening to me, and I'd say you were out of your mind and had lost your wits. But, strangely enough, this time is the first time in my life that I can say it truly feels right to settle down. At 36 going on 37, all I can say is that it's about time.

And where? Right here in Austin, right where it all started back in 1994. I came to Austin from the Rio Grande Valley at the tender young age of 20. I had worked at a crafts store in the framing department, a job which, at the time, I really loved. It allowed me to be creative and make suggestions to my customers on things like which mat color complements which other mat color, and how the two colors could bring out certain colors from within the piece itself that was being framed. Customers were really open to suggestions, and were usually content with whichever recommendations I made.  It was enough to keep me happy, momentarily.

But after doing that for a while, though, I reached a point where I really wanted and needed a change - a visual change, a mental change, and most of all, a spiritual change. I was 20, but didn't see myself being a framer for the rest of my life. So I packed my belongings one afternoon into my dark blue 1986 Mercury Cougar and drove the five hours north to Austin. When I got to Austin that evening in February of 1994, my car's radiator gave out, but I was thankful to have made it all the way instead of being stranded somewhere along the way to our state's capital. Texas can be a scary place outside of the city limits of our fair city, from the sensible perspective of most of us Austinites.

I came to Austin with no job lined up, hardly any money at all, barely having managed to find a place to stay, and now without a means to get around - yet possessing all the ambition in the world while simultaneously trying to maintain the most positive outlook I possibly could, in spite of the many challenges that lay before me of which I was obviously and unfortunately unaware. It was to be the beginning of a lifelong trend I would repeat countless times...