¿A qué te dedicas?

A statue of the Buddha in the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, October 2015

How many times have you been asked, "So, what do you do?" Since becoming intentionally unemployed, I have realized just how often I am asked this question. Meeting new people. In classes, both in-person and online. During conversations that spring up in lines at grocery stores or on public transit. Volunteering. At a birthday party or happy hour. Traveling. In other words, almost every single time I leave the house and interact with people.

In my Spanish studies, I have learned that a common way to ask this question is, "¿A qué te dedicas?" If one were to translate that back into English, word for word, it would become, "To what are you dedicated?" or "What do you dedicate yourself to?"

In general, I know when someone asks, "¿A qué te dedicas?" they are asking, "What's your job?" And most of the time that's the question one should answer. But, the thing that I love about learning and studying another language is how it changes how you look and think about everything. When I ask myself, "What do you dedicate yourself to?" my perspective shifts.

I am dedicated to learning Spanish and becoming a fluent speaker. To supporting walking, biking and transit as safe, reliable and useful means of transportation in my city. To loving and supporting my friends and family. To practicing gratitude, self-compassion and self-care in my life. To dismantling patriarchy and white privilege in myself, my community and my institutions. To reading and learning about the world and universe. To writing in order to learn about myself.

¿Y tú? A qué te dedicas?

Diving in

To get this blog off the ground, figure stuff out, and just because I love her classes, I am participating in Andrea Scher's new Brave Blogging e-course. Today's prompt was to share 25 Random Things About Me, but I quickly realized that my Blogger "About Me" is essentially such a list (though only reaches 21 things). So, here are 4 more (final) random things to round my list off, as well as my bio reformatted as a list.

2010 Maker Fair - Connecting to my taurus-ness

Final 4 Random Things

1. Incycletra is my superhero persona who I created in another of Andrea's amazing e-courses. I will probably share more about her at some point, but for now I'll share that her mission is the guiding principle for the start of this blog: To gather the details – insights, glimmers, perspectives, point of views, whispers, smiles, sorrows – and use them to create, re-envision, inspire and bring what’s needed where it’s needed.
2. While I do have many freckles, the meaning of chameleon in my blog title is more abstract. One of my best friends uses it to describe me. Her explanation deeply resonates for me, particularly in regards to my growing understanding of myself. In her words: You have an underlying sameness of self, and truth to you, but also possess an ability to change and reinvent yourself in a way that I think is both useful, and hard to do.
3. I am a cat person. I wrote a poem in college about an experience I had as a child with a family cat who gave birth to her kittens in my bed while I was sleeping. The general reaction in the class, not knowing that it was based on a real-life experience, was that it read like the origin story of the iconic "cat lady." I was both worried and pleased.
4. I love science fiction and fantasy. Particularly books and films/TV series. Favorites include, but are by no means limited to: anything written by Octavia Butler, Farscape, Saga, Labyrinth, Ann Lecke's Imperial Radch series, N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy and Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy.

January 2016 - Afternoon sunlight self-portrait

About Me

1. I love the sound of rain.
2. I am passionate and nurturing.
3. I strive to be authentic and consciously aware.
4. I bicycle.
5. I get lost in books and stories.
6. I am learning that love is not straightforward.
7. I dance.
8. I need space and time alone to nourish myself.
9. I dream of having a house.
10. I am a vegetarian.
11. I am still discovering how to turn off my inner judge and critic.
12. I tend to organize everything and anything.
13. Once I have been somewhere, I can always find my way back.
14. I stopped plucking my eyebrows and think I look younger for it.
15. I shy away from unknowns.
16. People find my ability to remember song lyrics slightly uncanny.
17. I am often contradictory as I am still getting to know myself.
18. My work ethic is intense.
19. I am a feminist.
20. I believe the best conversations are the ones that range from dirty socks to the inner workings of the universe.
21. I appreciate that life is all about change.