Our Third Anniversary in Seattle

It was bound to happen.

It was only a matter of time.

I was kidding myself to think that I could avoid the unavoidable.

Tonight, on Christmas Eve, it happened. I broke my ramp-out to have a Christmas cookie. In my defense it was a fresh wheat germ cookie. This is thee best cookie to be found in town. So mind-bendingly good, it’s a little twisted.

It is possible that I might’ve also had a cup of a certain black caffeinated beverage that shall remain nameless with said cookie.

It’s Christmas Eve. I mean, come on. Really. Thirteen, fourteen hours isn’t gonna make that much of a difference.

We’re now entering year four in Seattle, and I still find myself amazed at all the good food we have access to: local bakeries, local organic dairy farmers, fresh fish, lots and lots of organic produce and a plethora of vegetarian friendly groceries and restaurants. Farmers markets. Amazing coffee. Local breweries. Dive bars that serve up cheap beer and no attitude.

On top of that, we don’t need a car.

We have mountains to the west and mountains to the east. We have water.

We have a lot of green space.

We have volcanoes and earthquakes. (This is a pro on my list. I like the charge of nature-based elemental uncertainties.)

We’re a progressive city that flashes a lot of independence but plays big with the corporations.

We’re very, very close to Canada.

We came to Seattle to be artists, to live as artists. Something I’ve learned in my hopscotching across the country is that geography doesn’t matter. You can create from anywhere. You can be in bliss anywhere. You can be miserable beyond belief anywhere.

And I will match your ying and raise your yang with this little diddy: geography makes all the difference.

I remember when we visited four years ago to attend a film festival. We immediately tapped into the crisp vitality of the energy. “This feels like home.”

That wasn’t my first time in Seattle. In fact I had lived here before, briefly. Both times, I was running. At 18, I was just running away whereas at 25 I was running towards something. I’ve always had a desire to tackle growth and my intuition told me that Seattle had a lot to teach me.

So far it hasn’t let me down.

All new places have that initial romanticism to them. It usually wears off once familiarity and routine take their hold.

Somehow, Seattle avoids this. It continues to impress me with its contrast: the continuous dark, rainy days that echo perseverance occasionally to be broken up like a morning last week where the sky was such a beautiful vibrant bluish-silver and the mountains were a powdery puffy ornament.

Layer on top of that tall city skyscrapers, bustling development. Then there’s the arts: used books stores, indie theatres (we have three within walking distance plus two megaplexes), museums, galleries, local art work on display nearly everywhere you turn.

The people all smattered and swirling together in this increasingly tight urban living space: the races, the sexes, the suits, the artists, the wanna-be artists, the yuppies, the hipsters, the homeless, the tweakers and everyone in between.

Walking, working, traveling, living, day in and day out side by side.

I don’t know how to explain it any other way then to say that, as a home base, Seattle feels like it will continue to gingerly nudge me along, keeping me on the path towards the person that I wish to become.

Weather or not this personal evolution would be happening regardless of where I was geographically located, I’ll never know. Again, it all matters and nothing matters. I feel like I have all the answers. I know nothing. I want it all. I have no desires.

A lot of my ‘pro-Seattle’ content feels repetitive. Those of you reading this have likely heard it before. But what can I say? We worked hard to find a place that felt like home: a place where we could be comfortable in our skin.

We found the place and it’s everything we want it to be.

Now comes the settling into the skin.

And there, finally, comes the ‘a-ha’ moment. (I was beginning to question its appearance in tonight’s lineup.)

For me, Seattle has set up all the physical, environmental elements that I desire.

“No more excuses, you’ve got all you asked for. Isn’t it beautiful?

Now. Become who you said you were gonna become if you could only just get here.”