California, choices, transportation, travel

Beautiful: Los Angeles Sans Car

Christa Avampato
LA’s Rapid Transit bus system from Pinterest

“You need to get a car.”

I have heard this statement over and over again. I’ve done the research. I almost pulled the trigger and got a car for the remaining 6 weeks that I’ll be in LA. Then a few incidents happened that caused me to reconsider:

1.) My dear friend, Amy, who shares my love for public transit, sent me an article from AFAR entitled Another Angle on LA by Aimee Bender. In it, she skeptically explores the world of public transit in LA.

2.) Traveling back from Lake Tahoe, I got caught in all of the confusion in SFO after the horrific plane crash there. To get back to LA from San Francisco, I ended up having to rent and drive a car. The traffic wasn’t bad, but I found myself reaffirming what I’ve known all along: I don’t enjoy driving. At all. It’s one thing to rent a Zipcar here and there for specific reasons. It’s another thing entirely to depend on one to get from every point A to every point B.

3.) It’s also quite synchronistic that the people I swapped houses with this summer also prefer public transit and walking to driving. They’ve left me numerous resources on how to navigate LA via bus, subway, and my own two little feet.

So I’m listening to the signs and taking an adventure: I am going to attempt to navigate LA, and enjoy everything it has to offer, sans car as much as possible. I’m excited for the road ahead – especially since I won’t be driving on it. I promise to share all of my transit adventures here.

strengths, stress

Beautiful: Winning

Christa Avampato

e7c3d8152fbc93681ebeb2e986ca824a Stress may be all around us, but it doesn’t need to consume us. Someone else’s drama, bitterness, and unhappiness doesn’t need to affect our mood and outlook. Arturo Peal, one of my yoga teachers, describes the need for a personal Teflon shield. My friend, Moya, imagines difficulties caused by others as water than can roll right off her back.

I love both of these images and used them recently in the midst of discomfort and disappointment. They worked like a charm. I hope they help you, too.

creativity

Beautiful: Where to Find All the Answers

Christa Avampato

“We must understand that out of community and dialogue, the answers will arrive in their own time and way.” – Bryant McGill

I came to California to get away from it all, to tap in so that I can clearly see what’s around the bend. That’s a more poetic way of saying that I came here to find these answers:

Where do I go from here?

And why?

And how?

And with whom?

Slowly those answers are rising up as I engage deeply and fully with the world around me and the world within. It is the best and hardest journey I’ve ever taken. And it is so worth it!

creativity

Beautiful: My Summer Mantra

Christa Avampato

Is there any better way to live?

20130703-234216.jpg

choices, friendship, happiness

Beautiful: Bliss Opens Doors

Christa Avampato

“When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.” ~ Joseph Campbell via my friend, Marita

My beautiful friend, Marita, sent me this quote to help me along my summer of discovery. We worry so much that we won’t be able to create the lives we want or find the opportunities we seek. There’s so much competition. How will we ever be able to stack up against so many others who have the same dream?

The truth is that the road to those opportunities is already available. It’s waiting for us to hop on the path, the path that is made just for us and aligns with our deepest desires. The secret to finding the road is to tap in, to get really clear on what brings us joy, and then choose it. Thank you, Marita, for this needed and appreciated reminder.

strengths

Beautiful: We’re Stronger Than We Think

Christa Avampato

1045126_407363719372305_2041088299_nThe only way to know what we’re really made of is to get out there and live, live, live!

vision, yoga

Beautiful: What We See Matters

Christa Avampato

22e6aca1d3ddaef6ed74dfe4e53edcb1“We believe what we see most often.” ~ Bryan Kest, yoga teacher

My friend, Dheepa, took me to a yoga class here in Santa Monica taught by Bryan Kest, the founder of Power Yoga. During our meditation he discussed the shape of our belief system and the factors that influence it. We believe what we see. And it’s also true that what we believe is what we see.

If we choose to see beauty, love, compassion, kindness, and hope, even in situations that seem dire, then we are more likely to see those things. The lives we have are the lives we will into being. So why not focus on goodness? After all, we only find what we seek.

California, loss, love

Beautiful: What To Do When We Lose Something We Love

Christa Avampato

Today I stopped thinking of loss as something that has been taken away from me and instead see it as something (or someone) that wasn’t meant for me. Same coin, two sides. This side is better.

1043964_539965126040605_1784396543_n

California, health, medical, medicine

Beautiful: Los Angeles Families Lend Their Hearts and Homes to Wounded Veterans Through Operation Mend

Christa Avampato

320639_509536619078099_296224254_nI heard about Operation Mend on the local LA news and it brought tears to my eyes. Through Operation Mend, local Los Angeles families open their homes to “provide returning military personnel with severe facial and other medical injuries access to the nation’s top plastic and reconstructive surgeons, as well as comprehensive medical and mental-health support for the wounded and their families.”

Receiving top-notch medical care is critical to the healing process for these soldiers, but it’s not the only care they need. They need the love, concern, and embrace (literal and figurative) of a family while they’re undergoing treatment at UCLA. Volunteer families open the doors of their homes to offer emotional support, a warm meal, a comfortable bed, and relaxation time during a stress period of the soldiers’ lives.

In its 6th year, Operation Mend has helped 88 soldiers and their families rebuild their lives. While to our eyes the most dramatic transformation of these soldiers may be physical, to the families who come to know and love them, its their spirits that are rebuilt stronger by these incomprehensible circumstances. These families testify that the soldiers help them feel a tremendous sense of gratitude and purpose. In my short-term adopted city it puts a smile on my face to know that on these long and winding streets that I don’t yet know, there are hearts as big as any I’ve ever met anywhere.

California, choices, future

Beautiful: I’m on the Road Ahead

Christa Avampato

We spend so much time looking in the rearview mirror and pining for what was, that we forget to take a good look at what’s staring us in the eyes right through the front windshield. The road of life is so unpredictable. It’s full of wonder, magic, and experiences that we cannot yet imagine.

So here’s the first decision of my creative break: I’m done looking back. From here on out, I’m living my life forward. Thank you to my beautiful friend, Sara Alvarez Kleinsmith, for posting this picture and always inspiring me to live fully.

1043986_10151678743157173_1407983907_n