Under Lavender Canopies

If you are in Southern California right now, you have seen the beautiful Jacaranda trees in full bloom this month. I am always met with pleasantry as I walk outside to find the sidewalks, streets and cars littered with these lavender blossoms. The only kind of litter I like seeing in my neighborhood. Lavender canopies above, and below my feet. Days like today, I am so glad to be embedded in Long Beach. I say embedded because I am a self-proclaimed socio-cultural anthropologist; living among and alongside the diverse cultures of Long Beach. This morning, I chose to work from a newly opened coffee shop, about a mile away from my doorstep. I made the trek on foot, with my backpack on. I ordered an iced coffee from corner coffee shop, Roasted Notz (pronounced “notes”) on the corner of 4th and Freeman. I sat down at the community table and got into conversation with Long Beach progressives and urban farmers. We worked silently for a while, each on our own tasks. We talked about cooperatives, culture shifts and hierarchy within organizations in Long Beach, and the struggle for sustainable transformation. A refill in my cup, I begin the meandered walk back—down streets I have never traversed in my 10 years in Long Beach. Always new architecture and landscapes to see. At this pace of life, I experience something invaluable. I experience Peace. I wonder at the level of ‘accepted’ stress of the inhabitants around me. I have chosen to build my life like this, today. But each day, I strive to enact a core value I hold close; the enjoyment of simplicity. Operating on minimal stimulus. I could reach for more, I could exhaust myself in the pursuit of more; but if I’m honest, the more I spend time with the peaceful Becca, the less I want to hang out with the chaotic Becca— that one who is traipsing from one event to the next, one social conversation to the next, one meeting after another, feeling the “love” by the full calendar I keep. Days like today, I’m reminded why I’d rather be in quiet contemplation with my Maker. As we walk, we talk. I’m reminded whose I am. And that is the simple peace I seek.