Online Gratitude Journal July 2009 Edition #31

Welcome to my monthly review with gratitude. I’m preparing this post in a cafe to avoid the heat of 103 degrees F (39.5 degrees C). Because the climate of this area (Oregon, USA) is usually very mild, few rental properties have air conditioners. I have a portable air in my office room — lucky me! Still, it gets boring to be stuck in one room all day, so now I’m in a very cold cafe with my macbook. By the time this post goes out, it’s supposed to cool down. . . (Photo by Mr. Greenjeans)

When I was a little kid, there were no air conditioners at my home nor at school. Modern appliances have their place in life. I’m so grateful.

July in Review

I enjoyed writing my Declaration of Independence spontaneously on the morning of 4th. Most of my posts are long well-planned ones, so it was a fun change of the pace. I was thrilled to receive a few comments with their own Declarations. (Thank you!) Perhaps I’ll do this again next year as a meme.

My post about vegetarianism got quite a few intriguing comments. (Thank you again!) Eating is an every-day everyone’s business, so the post was easier to relate to for many people, I guess. Maybe I want to write more of these posts. I actually love talking about foods

I’m not very sure how my starseeds series are received . . . it’s a brand-new concept for many. . .

Fun

I made a day trip to Eugene last weekend. Eugene is about 100 miles south of Portland. It’s a small college town at the south end of Willamette Valley.

The background: Well, the housing arrangement is one of the major things I’ve been working on in my personal life. I want to live in a townhouse because that would be more quiet than apartments. But, in this area in and around Portland, there seem to be very few two bedroom townhouses in a good area, away from the railroads and freeways. (It was so easy to find one back in Ohio . . .)

So I thought I might look into other cities around. I work from home, so I can be anywhere as long as I have phone and internet connection.

First I went to the natural foods grocery store, Sundance and Market of Choice. They were great. Sundance is just a small store but they carried some interesting items that I never saw at Whole Foods. (I LOVED the raw blueberry cheesecake!)

I always check the grocery stores and markets when I visit a new town. It’s the fastest way to get the feel of the place and the people. I see that, even though Eugene is a small town, it’s big on natural organic foods and personal care. I like that ^_^ Also people were very friendly. The guys at Sundance took time telling me about the town.

Challenges

The housing situation in Eugene, however, didn’t look any better than Portland area. Plus I think I might miss the city attractions. . . I don’t go to downtown Portland so often, but I do enjoy it occasionally. So my housing arrangement issue remains to be in the air. . .

I received some encouragements about this through Twitter and Facebook. I’m grateful for my friends’ support.

Where in the blogosphere Akemi has bee

I found Location Independent — Live & Work Anywhere You Choose. Oh, that is me, right? Lea and Jonathan Woodward have been blogging since February 2007 and now have many contributing writers, so their archive is huge.

As I read their articles, I see that their style of location independent life is a bit different from mine. They are more nomadic while I’m a migrant. I don’t travel much, but I relocate to new areas to live. I was born in Japan, lived in Sydney, Australia (1 year), Columbus, Ohio (10 years), Nashville, Tennessee (3 years), and Portland, Oregon (almost 2 years now). The last three are all in the US, but there is a Dixon-Mason Line between Ohio and Tennessee, and across the Rockies is quite another world, too.

I guess many of you dream of location independent lifestyle — whether it’s the ongoing world traveler style or my kind of big scale migration style. So check it out — here is a post in which Lea talks why this is a good time to plan and implement the lifestyle of your dream because of the economy, along with the list of her own aspirations.

A year ago at Yes to Me

Blog years are like dog years. As I look at my archive, I’m amazed to find that it was only a year ago when Hunter Nuttall and I did our first collaboration. Since then, he interviewed me (and not just once but twice!) and I’ve learned so much from his blog, which is so eclectic and always funny.

And it was only a year ago when I interviewed James Chartland of Men with Pens? I remember I was nervous asking for the opportunity to interview the Pen Men because, well, they were the big fat successful bloggers and I was just a beginner. He was, and always has been, very courteous. I guess that is one of the traits of successful people, and I’m so grateful. (Since then, they have grown to a quartet of three men and a lady. . . again, change and growth come at accelerated pace on the internet, I think.)

My gratitude goes to my fellow bloggers who have contributed to this blog, and to my readers.

Word of month

From earthmother’s comment for this post:

“For it is in giving that we receive.” — St. Francis

And also about giving, from Kelly’s comment on this post:

“(You) must be free in order to truly give. if you’re giving from any part of yourself that is NOT free, it is not truly giving. you’re giving from the non-free (limited, egoic) part of yourself, and you’ll generate more suffering at worst (even if it appeaers to be a self-less act) and you will certainly be generating karma of some kind at best.”

Thank you for your readership and comments, as always ^_^ Stay cool.