Łazy – and Rocky Creek (II)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 4:22AM 
The plan from the beginning was that Matt, Nate, Caitlin, and Ali would join us for Christmas.
And here are the four of them – with my cousin Staszek.
So you can see that the discussion about where we might meet for Christmas had been very brief...
…since Staszek and his wife Irena had invited us to spend a traditional Polish Christmas in Łazy with the two of them…
and with their sons Jakub…
…and Szczepan -- and Szczepan’s wife Patrycja.
They had written that they hoped it would be a Christmas we would remember all our lives.
You'll be able to tell us for yourselves if that's come true.
For awhile now, we’ve been thinking about the relationship between Łazy and the backcountry place we've found at Rocky Creek in Big Sur…
…and the ways of being there we’ve learned…
…with our kids…
…and friends.
In fact, our friends are continuing to create ways of being there even as we travel.
Sometimes you feel to us like a gravitational center…
…while we’re some wayward compass arm tracing an arc around a point that you hold firm.
Sometimes someone visits a place like Rocky Creek and politely admires its beauty…
…while someone else seems to have had it running through his veins all his life.
You make one brief call…
…and before you can turn around, your friends are there to help.
Staszek, Irena, Jakub, Szczepan and Patrycja have visited Rocky Creek themselves.
I speak no Polish. Just now, Staszek is beginning to study English.
But I can’t think of a time when we haven’t understood each other...
…ever since that suburb kid from California showed up in Łazy years and years ago.
When Staszek visited Rocky Creek, he took one look at what we had done, one look at me, and immediately wrapped me in a bear hug. Then he said just one thing.
OK. He said a lot of things. But I only understood one of them.
" Łazy."
But I knew exactly what he meant. "This place is like Łazy for you," he was saying.
And that’s exactly right.
When Staszek, Irena and Jakub returned from that trip to visit us in California, the renovation in Łazy not only picked up pace…
…but perhaps its focus sharpened, too.
There was foundation work to be done…
…and a new well to be dug.
The center of any home is really its fire-hearth…
…so that had to be restored as well.
And lest we give the impression that an act of reinhabitation only requires physical work…
…here’s Staszek poring over his gathered collection of family documents – an act of backwoods scholarship our Big Sur friends understand themselves.
But what is Staszek pointing towards?
...the signatures of two of our relatives.
Signatures in a wide sense. Yes, someone has written their names for them. But the two crosses to the left indicate their own marks since they couldn’t write themselves.
My grandparents and aunts and uncles, of course, all could write. But I’ve seen more intelligence in my grandmother’s peasant hands, and in my aunt Jadwiga’s, than in other forms of erudition I have known – including my own.
Here's Łazy 9 with its restoration work done…
…dated from its inception until the year of our family reunion there.
And here’s the main architect behind these dreams.
He has the precision of an engineer, but also the curiosity of an historian, and the sharp eye of an artist.
So as you can see, everything was waiting for us…
…to experience a Christmas at Łazy that we would remember all our lives.
Reader Comments (3)
The more I travel, the more I feel at home. The similarities between people outweigh our differences as long as the will to live together and get along exists.
I remember Rocky Creek in its poison oaky original state, before you built a thing. Now the dwellings seem as if they are rooted and entirely correct for this secluded canyon. Thanks again for letting us use the place. I look forward to seeing you there pretty soon.
Dennis
I definitely see the connections between Rocky Creek and Lazy. It's actually quite amazing. What an incredible Christmas, indeed. How I look forward to each episode of your incredible journey . . . the photos, the stories, as well as the delightful comments from friends!
Much love and a very happy New Year from Big Sur and Point Richmond!
Your comments are so rich and wonderful, Yvonne and Dennis. What a joy and wonder it is to begin to really see how our histories connect and weave together.