One Night Count....

This morning at 2AM I met several hundred other people downtown to participate in Seattle/King County's "One Night Count". The count was sponsored by the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness; this was "the counts" 30th year....

King County has one of the nation's best-established point-in-time counts of homeless people. The One Night Count remains the largest community-organized count in the United States. 978 volunteers and 30 teams covered our county. Here are two volunteers and co-workers,
Jenny and Kelly.

The 2010 One Night Count also collected information from select hospitals about emergency room usage, and from Metro night owl buses operating throughout the county.

We were assigned grids and our job was to walk each section, street, park,
lot, within the grid.

2,759 people were counted--adults, children, families, elders all living on our streets or in cars.
After we finished, I came home at 6AM to my home and went to sleep;
That's all I will say.

Life Continues....

In four days it will be the first anniversary of our friend Ken's death. A year ago at this time, I was in Vienna and Kim had flown back to Seattle to be with Ken and his family. So much has happened in the last year...We've returned home to Seattle, gotten resettled, become reemployed, and are encountering what each new day brings--some of it I like, some of it I don't but isn't that what life is about? I could rant about politics and the state of the world and nation but I will spare us all of that...."Well done, Rachel!" (Sister Wendy here; I am checking for typo's since Kim is absent.)

And speaking of Kim's absence, she is currently in Florida visiting her father who is living in an assisted living facility ; I don't think that he knew she was coming for a visit. I will leave you with this image that Kim shared with me by phone.

Upon her arrival at the facility, she saw her father giving dancing lessons to those around him. He had his back to her and didn't see her come in. She walked up to the woman he was dancing with and said, "May I cut in?"

These are the moments to savor. Thank you.

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Question to Self: Where's the most comforting & beautiful place you've ever been?
Self: Hmmmmmmm?. Italy? Chile? Russia? Spain? Argentina? Austria? Hungary? Sicily?...
Self continues: How about the place Kim and I return to year after year:
Cannon Beach, Oregon, United States of America.
Self concludes: Yes, that is correct.

Hay Stack Rock, Cannon Beach Oregon.

Cycles of Life...

A happy beach stroller...