1.29.23 // I Moved to Bend, Oregon

I moved to Bend, Oregon.
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In my leaving Squamish post I said, "my time as a tumbleweed needed to come to an end." And at the start of the new year, I took my first real step toward where the tumbleweeds blow but where my roots could be real.
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I spent a year in BC fooling myself I that I was planting, growing, and building a home of stability. My intuition was screaming at me and I have many voice notes and journal entries from the year voicing those screams.
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But, then Bend.
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My first trip here was in summer 2019. I got my first tattoo, camped in my car, trail ran, drank local beers, scout swam in alpine lakes, and played in the National Forest right outside of town.
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I didn't return to Bend until mid-November of 2022. We pulled in during the start of a snow storm and it was surreal- the Christmas lights were lit and each place explored was full of friendly faces. I kept asking, "am I in a Hallmark movie?"
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Coming back through Bend at the end of November, we spent Thanksgiving week here. I hadn't been in America for Thanksgiving in a few years and I desperately was craving tradition. Plus, I wanted to see if that first weekend was just a fluke. It wasn't.. the week in Bend was filled with sunshine, delicious coffee, and a glimmer in my heart I hadn't felt in a location since Chamonix.
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Bend felt like she was calling to me (Chamonix still calls, I'll get there in time.) But, Bend felt like this beautiful break of sunshine in a rainstorm I didn't even know I was standing in.
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Bend feels like magic- the small interactions with humans who see me and share kindness, the cedar and sagebrush breeze that permeates the air, the endless night sky filled with stars even in the midst of the city limits.
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I've been a nomad, a curious soul, and I've been begging, yearning, and now demanding stability. And I'm going to give it to myself. I'm going to give my intuition the microphone she deserves and the action to follow suit.
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So, if you need me (and Scout), we'll be where the tumbleweeds dance across the high desert, the mountains stand snowcapped on the horizon, and the river pulses through a city built in quite literally the middle of Oregon.