Summer has come and gone, at least on this end of the world. Six months straight spent in Europe is my longest stay outside of Oregon since I first arrived there at age three when we moved back to where my mother was from. Really, I have had a lifetime full of travels and adventure, both far and near, but the Pacific Northwest with its green vistas, mountains and rain is where I have always returned to find home. I really find content and a sense of well-being with the rain. It is the familiar that gathers all memories.
This past year was spent in quite a lot of travels, including almost four months in Japan. Besides the culture and sensory overload, spending time in Tokyo was quite a surreal event as I spent the months from December through February pretty much without rain. Every morning, one after another, I woke up to completely blue skies with no clouds in sight. Yes, it did get cold during this period, but to me the dryness came as such a surprise that ultimately I could not conceive of it as winter. Where I come from we have our rainy season ten months out of the year and from sources back home, it has already begun.
This summer was perhaps quite a rainy one over here in Europe. I tend to plan my trips, I think unconsciously, around rain. I often end up with it. They say it was the the rainiest summer in Austria in over fifty. I was able to miss the rain in Sweden by taking a trip down south. From the time of my arrival in Sweden in April until my departure in June, I experienced almost perfect weather for Sweden. They said I must have brought the weather with me. Yes, we do have sunny weather back in my neck of the woods, but not quite so much. It has been the same since my return here at the beginning of September.
This summer, not so planned, has been a rewarding experience. As you read this I will be either on my way back or back in Oregon once again. A lot has been said in skateboarding lately of Oregon, but it is nothing too new. Nor have there been any new concrete happenings in the big metropolis of Portland. With the coming of fall, Burnside will be coming up on its fourteenth birthday. Halloween is the big anniversary celebration. I'll be there to reap the rewards of riding and the fact that home still exists.
I come home to not much. It is part of my life and experiences. Without a car and scrambling to put all my lost connections back in place, I have some work to do. What I will find, though I know, is my family, friends, a state I know so well and, of course, I hope that there is still there in the rain something intangible that is sacred to me.
