O Pioneers!

Hello friends! 

I’m about to have a birthday, which makes me think of new adventures. Not African safaris or expeditions into the Amazon. I’m thinking about the kind of adventures I see people all around me embracing every day as they explore new territories within their own lives. Like our movie-loving friend Jeff who left his longtime job as an ad-man to re-open a theater appropriately named The Joy. Or the couple next door who just got married at an outdoor wedding in the Columbia Gorge. Or my brother James - a father of two grown children - who's started running races in recent years. Or our teenage daughter who decided to be a vegan and eagerly searches the web each morning for new recipes. Or her English teacher, Mr. Gordin, who went back to school to get his master’s degree. Or our son who’s creating an online consortium of movie critics. Or my cousin’s husband who’s been learning to speak Spanish. Or my friend Lindy who retired from her job as a high school counselor and is diving into the art of fiction writing. Or my husband, who once learned to swim at his neighborhood's Cabana Club and has just taken up the sport again, stopping at our community center to do a few laps before coming home from work.

Today in Portland the sky is a solid sheet of November gray, but the golden leaves are glowing and new possibilities are astir, as thrilling as an autumn breeze.

Here’s to all of you, dear friends, as you each embark on your own adventures. May we all continue to delight, surprise and inspire each other in myriad ways and at any age.