One Month Later

Today is Sunday, July 15, 2007 and I am at Camp Tawonga, seven miles outside of Yosemite National Park in northern California. During the past month I have finally slept for the first time in four years and I have become dirtier than ever before in my life. My skin is brown and my hair is long, my diet is vegetarian and I am older than almost everyone else with whom I work by at least ten years. My days are full of sage-scented air and my nights are marked by star-strewn skies.

While I am making every effort to adapt to this new environment, I still have a long way to go.

They say you can take the girl out of the city but you can't take the city out of the girl, and so far that has proven true...for as much as I've adapted, I still long for take-out sushi from Ebisu and the opportunity to walk eight blocks to Crossroads when I need a little recycled-clothing pick-me-up. But I have also learned the names of native plants and countless constellations, I have spent hours studying Torah in preparation for teaching it to others. I have worn strangers' swimsuits dug out of the Lost and Found, I have eaten food that has fallen off my plate into the dirt and none of those are things I'd have even considered trying before a month ago today.

This year is off to a good brave adventurous honest start.