A Study in Contrasts

My Room at the Davenport Grand Hotel

                                      My Room at the Monastery

The View from My Room at the Davenport Grand Hotel

                                                   
                      The View from My Room at the Monastery

It's all good

Welcome to Cottonwood

Setting out very early on Wednesday morning, I started the first leg of my journey. After the local train to the airport, I boarded the long flight to Seattle which was thankfully uneventful until we got close to Seattle and “some weather” as the pilot described it. We were flying in the most cloud and fog that I can ever recall. Even though I had only moments before seen blue sky above the cloud line, it was now gone and I started to feel anxious and disoriented. Apparently we were in a holding pattern, circling around Seattle air space, but with no reference points and nothing to see except dense white fog, it was difficult to decipher what was happening. Lots of deep breathing and some good reality testing (“This is just fog” “You’ll be on the ground soon”) helped a little. Coming out of the clouds and fog helped a lot!  (For anyone who’s wondering, that is a metaphor!)

Second leg – the 34-minute flight from Seattle to Spokane. Then the taxi ride to the hotel because there’s only one bus a day to Cottonwood and it leaves at 6:15 am.

My challenges with technology apparently continue wherever I am in the world.  At different times throughout my traveling day, I tried to download some apps and sync my new health tracker thing to my phone. Incompatible. I tried downloading the app for Uber. Not incompatible but definitely not working. Even after numerous attempts sitting in the Spokane airport desperate to make the thing work. And this is when I understand a Buddhist quote about "grace arising from harm...amd harm arising from grace." Because this is how I met Mel. 

If I had successfully downloaded the Uber app I would have taken an Uber to the hotel. Because I couldn’t, I took a taxi and met Mel. Mel is a retired contractor who owns Val in Time Taxi, named in honor of his long-term partner or wife who he lovingly refers to as “my girl.” Mel told me about the two homes he bought and renovated and how communing with nature in Idaho will change me. Then he gave me his phone number “in case you need anything or start to go bonkers.” I really like Mel.

I had a short but lovely stay at the Davenport Grand Hotel and feasted on gluten-free food at Boots Bakery before settling in for the night because I had to catch the bus early this morning for the four hour ride to Cottonwood.

After a quick ride through the University of Idaho campus in Moscow, we made a short stop in the town of Lewiston where a refill of Bigelow specialty tea is…94 cents. Then on to Cottonwood where I was greeted at the mini mini-mart by an incredibly warm and hospitable woman named Nikki who’s from Seattle and has been living at the monastery for a year.

Nikki gave me the tour of the monastery and introduced me to many of the sisters, one of whom (Gerry Marie) has already taken me under her wing. So far the biggest surprise was reading the welcome letter in my room and learning that AT&T, you know, the company with which I have my cell phone service, doesn’t seem to work in Cottonwood, Idaho. Maybe a silent month after all!

Tomorrow – or the next day – or whenever I have access to internet, I’ll post my “study in contrasts.” And one of these days we’ll talk about the title of this blog. In the meantime, be well.