oregon | mushroom consumption

the morels were obviously edible, but during our hunt, we also found a variety of mushroom that we weren't certain of. we did what was most logical....fill up an entire bag to take back home and then google it!

we thought maybe they were cauliflower mushroom at first, but the image search didn't leave us feeling very confident. i mean, there are many deadly mushrooms out there and i certainly wasn't interested in dying two days later. but, hope struck when isaac's mom suggested we google "coral mushroom." grins formed and immediately isaac typed away. AH-HA!

with that, the mushrooms was prepared and happily consumed!


on a related note, i was wandering around a store that sells every odd end, and came across these giant morels the same day i edited the morel photo above. needless to say, i was surprised and delighted by such serendipity! 

oregon | mushroom hunting

it had been far too long since visiting beloved oregon, so i took a quick trip up during memorial day weekend. it was perfect for many reasons, but one significant one was that i got to go mushroom hunting with my friend isaac and his brother carlos. 

we drove out to mt. hood national forest from the east side, and carlos tells me to pull over on a relatively abandoned road. i'm thinking, "interesting....right here??" but what do i know, he's the mushroom hunter, not me. so we pull over and start walking into the forest. within three minutes, my excitement changes to, "it's impossible to find mushrooms!" (oh, fickle liz.) i then proceed to hear a small chuckle from one of the guys.

about 15 minutes later, i hear carlos yell, "i found one!" isaac and i rush over to see the morel. i arrive last and ask, "where is it?!" carlos tells me to look for it and i quickly take out my laser focused mushroom vision glasses and begin searching. i look all around that area while isaac and carlos stand there watching me.  umm... turns out it was right next to my foot where i first stood. next time, i'm not relying on those freaking glasses. 

anyway, we roam around for another 30 minutes or so and without any luck, we decide to go to another location. when we get to the new spot, we begin the same process of walking slowly through the forest, scanning for the disguised lil guys. funny thing is that although they're hard to identify, once you see a morel, it is impossible to not see. in fact, we got a chance to record the 2nd morel find of our hunt and my very first mushroom!

take a look!

on being 28.

i meant to post this a while back, but tomorrow became 4 days, 9 days and now, 2 weeks later... but here it is: a recount of experiences at age 28.
this past year was more than i could've imagined, most of it, normals of daily life-living sprinkled with bursts of inspiration and the deepest heart stirrings this girl could've asked for.

in some sort of liz-brain logical order…these are the things i want to remember about year 28.

• started noticing a lot more white hairs. stopped pulling them out (except on days i feel ocd), and haven't managed to fully accept them yet. :\
• i joined a dance troupe. learning choreography kicks my ass --hard, but it feels great to be challenged in a new way
• backpacked in the sierras for 7 gloriously hard days; i learned to receive help.
• became a vegetarian
• nine months later, began an intense love affair with all sorts of meat. (funny how things work out.)
• had the most intense creative flow that kept me up for 36 hours
• shared my soul at TEDActive
• met a magnetically charming man
• had a profoundly sad ending with that magnetically charming man
• met a couple, on a boat, on the way to a desert island in puerto rico; spent a few unforgettable days with them eating the whitey-white bread, canned squeeze cheese, and faux spray butter sandwiches and skinny dipping under the moon
• my dad was diagnosed with 4 life threatening aneurysms. he decided not to get surgery. he's still alive.
• 2nd year of a new tradition of barrel tasting in sonoma
• 2nd year of a new tradition of volunteering at western states
• a dream comes true: private show with gregory alan isakov
• yosemite. that last look.
• had my first official break up with a friend
• a joy parade in east palo alto, inspired by bob goff
• raced in the inaugural born to run ultra; ran 10 miles
• beloved point reyes with old friends - steph, seiwei, jeff, nathan
• 7 days in my beloved state, montana
• 3 of 4 weekends, spent bike camping
• crossfit skeptic turned evangelist
• battled injury after injury; running came to a significant halt
• grew a wart; burned off the wart
• annette births abby joy.
• spontaneous road trip to arcata, ca in a sub24o trip
• joined a small group at my church, to experience deeper community
• had my first (and probably last) experience of harbin hot springs. 
• finally went to ashland, oregon: one of my heart's callings
• finally went to chicago, illinois: another one of my heart's callings
• finally went to santa barbara: one of my local destinations this year, to visit yon
• made a lot of new friends: emily, jenny, mary, lisa, billy, matt, samuel, kristen, jen, cole, janet, isaac...
• started the gratitude jar and it's shown me that i am most frequently grateful for people
• gave a commencement speech at art institute sf
• started dreaming up how/when i can do BOSS 28-day survival school
• started dreaming about how/when/where i might be able to bike tour for an extended time
• allowed my heart to get stirred by someone i only experienced through the typed letters on my screen. which made meeting in person, extraordinary.
• i cried in front of my boss
• applied for the amazing race with that same boss; got rejected; and did it again, but better.

muir woods | a rainbow, a hike, & dragon's breath

up & down the dipsea
we roamed...
 

 

wdydwyd? | bike camping to sam p taylor (again)

you know how time spent browsing the internet can go: click click click click click, pause, click click (sometimes leading to an exorbitant length of time wasted). well on one of those clicks, i stumbled onto this photo through a twitter connection. you'll notice on the bottom of the picture an opaque "wydydwyd?". when i saw it, i wondered what the heck that crazy long acronym was about, so after a .013 second search, The Google told me what i needed to know. except, the answer unexpectedly invited me into a much larger question: why do you do what you do? 

(thanks a lot google.) anyway, the question was haunting because it was impossible to get out of my head! fast forward a few days from the initial click and i get presented with a bit of a dare to post my own wdydwyd self-portrait from isaac (the guy in the photo) and he would in turn share his most impactful excerpt on joy + how that joy's manifested in his own life. (the topic of joy is in response to the work i'm doing for hopelab's joy campaign.) it seemed like an intriguing trade!! 

so this weekend while bike camping up to samuel p taylor, i thought it'd be fun to invite my biking buddy kristen to participate (...as well as whoever else we'd meet along the way)! here are the folks who we asked to play, including kristen:

(from left to right)
bc / 24 / farmers market stall employee
jim / 37 / marin community farm stands organizer
paul / 33 / artist, illustrator, cyclist
scott / 58 / sand sculptor, artist
kristen / 26 / flight attendent, climber, up-for-adventure gal pal

you know what surprised me? 
bc, jim, and scott had immediate responses when presented with the question! they didn't hesitate at all. i was inspired by their clarity and confidence in the moment. 


and then there's my response to wdydwyd. i had a few statements that resonate true for me right now, but the one below is most befitting since one of my intentions this year is to live in the reality that i am beloved. in this particular journey, i've noticed that the gift is two-fold: i've been able to believe not just in my own belovedness, but also enter into others' belovedness (both of which which can be challenging at times).


i'm finding that to see oneself and to see another as beloved might be one of the most motivating reasons to be kind, tender and vulnerable, to show grace and to practice integrity, to commit and pursue, to speak truth, to be open to changing, to delight and to choose to love...


so why do i do what i do? because i love being changed by:


(ps. this photo was taken on a tree stump with a timer. apparently, i missed my head and stood about 12" from being in focus - a lovely recipe for an interesting photo!)


thank you isaac for challenging me to act on my curiosity & to reflect on this simple, yet profound question.