It's Raines at Sacramento Street

I had the good fortune of being invited by Raines Cohen over to common meal at the cohousing over on Sacramento street. I like sharing meals with people, feeling the vibe of a place. I've got that vibe in me, but often my overlay of concern about how I'm going to keep moving forward deadens it.

The common green for Berkeley Cohousing is beautiful. But more than that, the kids playing gently with each other and a parent or two, far from street noise and car fumes, had quite a restorative effect on my nervous system. It reminds me strongly of the type of environment my dad worked to create in our backyard, way back in the '70s. I guess I've been a "village child" my whole life.

In truth, the cars aren't really that far away. The design of the place really lends itself to a sense of an oasis of community tucked into the gridded enforced privacy that seems to be the consequence of typical planning for urban areas. 14 units, 14 spaces for cars, yet some of the residents are car-free so there's some space in the parking lot. I've been playing phone tag with the City Car Share folks about expanding their operation into cohousing communities. Heh, like I have time to do anything else? I think I'll simply trust that someone else will see that opportunity there and fill it.

Over the last couple of days I've been thinking strongly about where to apply myself. I'm fairly certain at this moment that the reason I haven't found someone to partner up with on the urban retrofit business is that I'm out of whack. The panic lurking behind my eyes is surely unnattractive.

I have finally realized that getting that aspect, the part about what am I doing to care for me, switched over to an abundnace view-- separate from any of the projects! --is my crucial next step. In that vein, I'm very excited to be doing more and more logo design and graphic design.

Hire me for graphic design!