This week marks my return to Los Angeles. The purple flowering Jacarandas celebrate dropping their trumpet shaped flowers on the sidewalk, bright green grass and my head during the dog walk. Two favorite colors: purple and green, psychedelic even more together. I feast my eyes on my favorite Jacaranda trees, their branches twisting in the air, despite gravity. Their buds growing, filling the sky with purple blossoms before falling to the ground.
It's been eight years in this city. I still love "la dona" as much now as in the beginning.
Indulge me as I reflect. When I arrived in Los Angeles I had no plans. I specifically unplanned. Eight years later, I've done a lot. I've _been_ a lot (of different people). Not too shabby for someone with no job, no friends, nothing more than a 1 month sublet in Venice.
I feel I've completed an equal shift. I've physically moved. My relationship status is offroad after more than six years. (ps. I am NOT in the market.) I've shifted professionally too, from product management, blogging, performing and marketing consulting to become a professional futurist who also makes films. I have an amazing job, where I might actually be able to positively improve the lives of billions of people (anonymously). I've consciously evolved, created and undone my personal brand. I'm "enlightened" "conscious" "aware" - not that it makes living or being any easier. I understand my own programming - and sometimes when I have enough energy, I can understand others too.
I feel I am in a similar place as that day eight years ago. I have no idea what the future might bring. (Well, professionally, yes, I do know what it _could_ bring.) Despite not knowing, what do I _want_ it to bring? I'm not even sure about that. I've accomplished a lot. I'd be fine going down in a fiery crash. (I have a good relationship with my death - maybe too good.)
I think I'll leave my mind open, I don't need to make any decisions right now anyway. I use my past as the spring board, the moment now, my toes curled around the end, except there is no pool below, I have my transformative purple tornado in the palm of my hand, I ask her to blow, my feet bounce, toes curled, the wind swirls, gently, hot scent of desert creosote, I bend my knees, open my hands, drop the weight, release, a moment's pause, infinite, the jump, I catch the light from the Vanilla Sky, I spring up into it, caught on the winds.... these beautiful Santa Ana winds that come in from the desert, making crystal clear the Hollywood Hills.
My feet are no longer grounded, but that's ok. I'm grounded as the earth. I'm grounded as a planet in the solar system, orbiting the sun. I'm not just experiencing the Vanilla Sky, I'm creating it, along with you.
"All these adventures begin simply. The listener thinks it'll soon be over, but one story creates another, and then another."
