Somewhere West Of The Dream

Independence Day Parade in Downtown Napa

I don’t wish to be my best, but just to be. Like this flower. It shows up each day to grow a little more and await the possibility of pollination. Not everything is up to the flower. Not the winds or the rains or how scorching hot the sun. It cannot force the bees to come. It only blooms as long as it can, and in the end, it doesn’t have to wonder if it has done its job.

Flowers of Napa, CA

Photos taken in Downtown Napa, CA

If we are trying to escape something, it means we believe we are trapped. But if we were to look more closely at the chains, we might find that - once examined - they simply dissolve.

Flowers of Napa, CA

Photos taken in Napa, CA

Life will never make sense. It will never be free of pain. There is discomfort around every corner. Perhaps there is no purpose to it. But I will still go on because I’m too curious not to. Who knows what could happen? And from now until the end of our days, I wonder how many magical moments there are still left to find.

Photo taken in Westwood Hills Park, Napa, CA.

Much of social media oversimplifies life and relationships to sell you a belief system disguised as “help”, but secretly it makes you question yourself.

And so it creates a trap: the more we doubt ourselves, the more unsolicited advice sounds good to us. “Why men are X” or “All women want Y” and “the number one dating mistake is” sell a promise of salvation but leave no room for the in between.

And when there’s nothing left to strive for, our purpose can simply be: to find the template of a day that, despite its chores and toils, is one we could play and rewind again and again and again.

Photos taken at Wetlands Park, American Canyon.

The Napa River.

Photos taken in Napa, CA

Photos taken in Napa, CA