find awe. radiate optimism
Venice Beach, California
Emerging from a year of cancer treatment and Covid lockdown, by setting out to find the life around me.
Every afternoon, I get on my bike and cycle around Venice Beach and Santa Monica. It’s one part physical health, one part mental health. Embracing sparks of life in everyday moments. Finding wonder in the Californian light. Finding life in others that helps find new life in me.
Nobody can tell me why I got cancer. Without being able to prove it, I feel fairly certain it was stress — from work, the state of the world, from moving fast. Slowing down has connected me to this place more than ever; I’d lived in LA 14 years and my appreciation of the everyday had atrophied. Now, Venice seems more visceral than ever. I’m drawn to the moments of youthful vitality, the quiet moments of reflection, and the weather moving through.
There’s a simplicity to the ways people find joy around the beach; surfers playing with wave energy, skaters flowing with gravity, acrobats exploring their bodies’ capabilities. Together, the healing power of nature, movement, community.
I wrote more about the process of this series here.