Anything Can Be a Temple Part I

​I was born in Boston, but I was raised in San Francisco. I lived in Paris for a while and in Washington DC. Having never set foot in this town, I came to Portland to go to college. At the time I was 21 and found staying anywhere for more than two years distasteful. There was a great wide world out there and city-hopping suited me best.

Cities are so exciting.

Recently I was visiting San Francisco and I had to go to the grocery store. Equadistant from my mother's house are two Safeways: one in the Marina and one in Japantown. The Marina Safeway caters to an affluent population, and when one shops there one has the shopping experience one might have in Marin County (one of the wealthiest counties in the US). When one shops at the Japantown Safeway, one has the impression one has wandered into a war zone. The Marina Safeway has shopping carts sitting in lines waiting to be used by Safeway customers. The Japantown Safeway has NO shopping carts because they have all been appropriated by homeless people BUT you can rent one for $5 if you have the balls to make the business transaction. (On one JT shopping trip, I decided to just hold everything in my hands as I went along--the handheld baskets are never available because THERE ARE NO SHOPPING CARTS. It was not something I would repeat!) The Marina Safeway has artfully arranged displays of food when you walk in--inviting you to browse at your convenience. The Japantown Safeway has gates one must navigate through in order to reach the food--sometimes these entryways are confusing as you can only go in certain ones and out others--but it is no so very clear which is which because everything is old. The Marina Safeway (and many non-city folk may not notice this at first) has NO security guards patrolling outside and in the store. The Japantown Safeway--that's right, you guessed correctly-- has security guards patrolling outside and in the store. (For a while this seemed to be a boon for the stolen shopping carts, but it didn't last.) The Marina Safeway has a respectable amount of checkers, ushering customers out in a reasonable amount of time--the Japantown Safeway usually requires a minimum 30 minute, often more, line-standing sentence. The Marina Safeway has English speaking employees, the Japantown Safeway has employees that speak. (To be clear, both stores have an wide range of mixed ethnicities but the atmospheres and expectations of both stores are so completely different)

AND, the coups de grace: The Marina Safeway is MORE EXPENSIVE than the Japantown Safeway. But you saw that coming, didn't you?

In case you don't know, groceries in San Francisco cost almost 50% more than they do in Portland. Hence my extended experience with the Japantown Safeway.

​So, what do the Safeways of San Francisco, CA have to do with my life rebuilding a cabin in Vernonia, OR? A lot. We visit my mother enough for my ongoing relationship with grocery shopping in the city to have an impact of my spiritual life and assessment of self. I have experienced several "awakenings" while preparing to shop, shopping, and during the cool down period post-shopping. 

A huge reason I KNEW I was ready to cast-off being a city-girl as a huge part of my self-image, and walk into the unknown rural life (and become God-knows-what) was because of one particular trip to the Japantown Safeway. Before that, I never knew I was able to kill another human being in self-defense.

Just kidding, I've never killed anyone in self-defense--I just wanted to keep your attention.

More on this later.

​Bigger news: I finished the Loft floor yesterday!

​Not bad, huh?! I never layer a floor in my life! (Don't look too closely...)
I used a kerosene lamp in a bucket for light when it got dark--electricity-schmelectricity!!