I stepped off the plane and into a place that knew my name before I could introduce myself. I had not an inkling of what was in store. Beauty and grunge, art and tension, nature and nurture and pain… all laid out for my hearts consumption. And I felt full for the first time since adolescence, with all of its disharmony, riddled my identity with holes. I had stepped into a place for the abstract.

As I meandered through my first days in Portland, I interacted with many people. All drawn to me for different reasons; my hair, my camera, my height, my clothes… And me to them; their smiles, their frowns, their words, their energies. The majority of whom, I released into time, holding only their memory and the impression they made on me. The exceptions were two beautiful brothers with whom I never felt strange. Individually, they made me feel so protected. & When the three of us roamed the nights together, I was an invincible, coveted, Black jewel and simultaneously, a lioness ready to do my part for the pack.  This is the way Black Kings & Queens interact. Enter Queen number two, the friend who called me to this city, and a perfectly eclectic tribe had been assembled.

When the whole crew is woke AF

Pharaohs

Happy Hikers

In a moment of kismet and spontaneity, the four of us took off for a hot spring 3 hours out of town. Our destination was a mountain where mother nature offered her warm womb for rejuvenation, her cold hand for awakening and her magnificent beauty as a template for heaven. Between silent moments of awe, we set up camp, ate good food on hand plates, laughed like children, and exchanged real thoughts.

The lid of a cooler makes for a perfect hors d’oeuvres platter

Photos aren’t enough

Looking for a campsite

Driving in

We beat the sunset to the hot spring and bathed until it caught up with us, then stayed a little longer to  gaze at the full moon. Words do not carry enough weight to describe the serene silence of being fully submerged in steaming hot water pouring from middle earth. (It’s like that scene from Baby Boy where he was in the womb.. minus the anxiety that he was going through..) I slept very little that night. Partly because I didn’t go into the tent where it was warm and my feet were in the early stages of frost bite.. Partly, because I didn’t want to miss a single beautiful moment. I tried to catch the sunrise on camera, but it eluded me.

Before heading back to the city, we took a hike into the forest. We leaped and ran and played. We ate some leaves that I wasn’t sure were edible (I lived though). We shared bits of knowledge about the foliage that engulfed us.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

There have not been many times in this life when I have been so real and so free in the company of others. To have not one, but three other humans on the same wavelength at the same time was a real treat. I knew only that I had come to Portland to reconnect with an old friend; however, the universe knew that I was in town to revisit myself and to make new friends. Somehow, as we all wandered our own paths, we came to a four-way stop and halted just long enough to find life in one another. Proof that not all who wander are lost. Glad I found you guys.