Moving to Los Angeles

By the end of this month Emily and I will have moved across the country 3 times in less than a year! Our first move, last summer, was from Boulder, CO to Asheville, NC—both Emily and I are originally from small towns in the Appalachian mountains. That move was unsuccessful for a number of reasons–not the least of which being that Asheville has the 4th weakest local economy in the country right now–and so after 4 months we found ourselves needing to relocate back to Boulder. If I never have to drive through the plains of Kansas that’ll be totally fine with me! ;-D

Even as we were preparing to move back to Boulder one of our dearest mediation teachers, Trudy Goodman–who started the InsightLA meditation center in Santa Monica, CA–started to encourage us to come out to Los Angeles and be part of her growing community. “Yeah, that sounds like a great idea,” I told Trudy, “but the only issue is that we can’t afford to move out there!” I don’t have to tell anyone out there how expensive big cities can be, particularly ones populated by celebrities and movie directors. To our amazement Trudy spent the next few months working some sort of Buddhist magic and suddenly there was a job prospect for Emily and a teaching gig for both of us at InsightLA. It was overwhelming to consider moving again, but also very exciting to consider the possibility of being able to grow as teachers, and as people, with some more “adult supervision.”

When we went out to Santa Monica to visit earlier this month we spent time meeting more people in the InsightLA community, and also got to hang out with Sharon Salzberg while she was passing through on her book tour. I was really impressed with the caliber of people in their community, the amount that they’re growing and evolving as an organization, and also with the Santa Monica & Venice beaches! After our reconnaissance trip we both felt it would be an incredible opportunity to move out, if Emily was offered the job she interviewed for, and when she did get the offer we said “yes” immediately.

So at the end of this month we’ll be making our 3rd cross-country move in 12 months (ugh!), but this time we’ll be passing over the Rocky mountains and making our way out to the sandy beaches of Southern California. This is uncharted territory for us, and as we move forward I want to openly appreciate the time we spent with our families in North Carolina, the opportunity we had to reconnect with dear friends and colleagues in Boulder, and now the amazing adventure of going to live and work in the 2nd largest city in America. If the past year has taught me anything, it’s that I have no idea what’s coming next…