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| If you know WLA you know this feeling. Driving in this neighborhood is ill-advised. |
A long while back I was asked to write about the neighborhood of West Los Angeles (WLA). I've written several posts about it but never published them. This morning I wiped the slate clean and am posting a bit more of a "journal" post because as I got to thinking about WLA I started to get a bit nostalgic about the transitions in my life that have taken place during my time here. SO... I'm going to post some pictures of this place that is probably the least aesthetically pleasing in LA (yet somehow one of the more expensive places to live due to it's proximity to everything)... but you are also about to get a more predominant introspective post with no real extrinsic catalyst, so feel to turn back at any point.
When decisions are made, small or large it opens paths never previously available... and certainly not imaginable. In the blink of an eye I have passed the one year anniversary of moving off the beach and into my tiny little studio within walking distance to work. Due to this simple on-a-whim move my life gained at least 2.5 extra hours per day not sitting in my car. For a single guy with no kids two and half extra hours per day can do wonders for your ability to aimlessly explore a neighborhood (and your thoughts). I have met people I could have never imagined meeting and I've developed a lifestyle that I never previously thought possible. I'm 32 but I feel as though I'm... well, I guess 32, but that number doesn't mean what it used to mean to me anymore. In LA I come across people of all ages living the lifestyles I used to think were supposed to be lived by people of other age groups. While this occurs everywhere... in MN I feel that there is a particular lifestyle that is much more predominant and in LA there is much more heterogeneity to the way people live. These people that are doing life "differently" are happy. I'm sure at times they are sad but they are also happy. Just the same as people that follow a path within the structure of the culture they are raised. While these maybe seem like obvious statements, my internal thought structure just recently allowed them to be wholly true and that more sincere open-mindedness has made me just a bit more happy.
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| Looking south from my apartment, nothing but more over-priced 4 story apartment complexes and 2 story mid-century aparments |
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| Looking north from my apartment. Just a half a block away (not pictured) is a McDonald's. My proudest accomplishment in the past year is being able to count the times I've visited this late-late night stop on both hands. |
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| From my front step a rare photo of Miley parked within view. Off-street parking is so limited in this tight residential neighborhood that she is often surrounded on the street by 5-series BMW's and way too expensive for my blood Mercedes and Porsche's. |
Reflecting on the past year I have done many things but more than anything I have sat in silence by myself in my apartment. I have taken the time to listen to my inner rumblings/thoughts and taken the time to work through them in silence and meditation. This year has made me a much more patient person, not so much in regards to my interactions with other people, but in regards to my own life. This expanded patience has allowed me the time and space to reflect and connect on my own terms with the workings of the world around me.
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| Wilshire/Brockton... or any corner in WLA. |
Now that I live on my own it is easier for me to see that the world can, and will, move on without me, and that's okay from time to time, all I need to do is re-introduce myself when I'm prepared. I have often in my life felt as if I was moving at a pace that was maybe not the most harmonious with what I wanted, it was the pace that the world or culture wanted and I ignorantly submitted. In the path and flow of my life (especially over the past year) I have realized, or come to grips once again, with the fact that each step and each decision is so much more complex than I could ever imagine. I have read that the wise person must simply make a decision for what it is, a decision on the matter at hand, there is nothing beyond that decision. I agree and am at much more peace when I live by this saying, but I continue the struggle of practice.
When asked if I miss the Manhattan Beach life of ocean views from my kitchen as I sip my coffee I honestly say no. While that life was nice, so was the St. Olaf one, the St. Paul one, the Hollywood one, this current West LA one, and I can only imagine the next life I live will be quite nice, too.
