The (PDX) Road Less Traveled

Finding meaning without a car in the City of Roses

  • Car Wheels on a Portland Road

    The experiment has bitter-sweetly come to an end — Michael Francis, aka “Mike,” is a 2018 Chevy Bolt and is the newest member of the Cunningham fam. Summer is pumped! She couldn’t wait to “tell her friends.” I also have to admit that I too sighed a big breath of relief. It will be really…

  • The Inevitable Fall (From Grace?)

    Every rider remembers their major wipe-outs. That moment when you realize you’re going to fall is just the WORST. But it’s REALLY the worst when you are falling with kids on your bike! Oy. Last Friday after school I was carting Summer and her friend on the cargo bike to and from our monthly Girl…

  • Vacare Deo

    For me, control is like an addictive hit of dopamine. It is powerfully alluring, and also, it is a mirage — no amount could ever be enough. And that is why in my middle adulthood I’ve been trying to unlearn control, as I’m never so unhappy as when I am fully in control. Control takes…

  • Where No Cars Go

    Mother Nature, the great equalizer. One month ago, an ice storm pummeled Portland. Massive trees down, power lines fallen– this city was a total ice rink. No cars went anywhere (unless it was into a snowbank, and stuck). Only buses with chains could traverse the iced thoroughfares, and only then on major roads. We didn’t…

  • 2024 — “The Truth that is True for Me”

    The new year for me is a time of “both and“…A time of deep gratitude for what was, and a time of yearning — yearning for what could be/should be, both personally and globally. I suppose that is appropriate given the recent Advent season — a belief that a better world is not only possible,…

  • Paradoxical Freedom of Inter-Dependency

    I can no longer masquerade as a self-sufficient person. Without a car, my dependence on others is so very much more obvious. Since September 1st, I have often relied on people in our community to help us with transportation — accepting rides from in-laws, taking rides from friends, and borrowing my sister-in-law’s car a couple…

  • Hark!

    It is the season of hopeful waiting. *Happy Sigh* I do LOVE this time of year and the little rituals that remind us of all that is wonderful to come. Stubborn hope, as Kate Bowler calls it in her Advent Devotional this year. I love that gritty image. I’m GOING to have hope. And along…

  • Selah

    My friend Shelby and I recently went to a Faber Institute event where one of the speakers talked about the Psalmist concept of “Selah.” He explained that Selah is the only word in the Psalms that retains its Hebrew root and will not be translated into the lingua franca in one’s Bible. If you look…

  • A Human Speed

    As a second grader with a Catholic mom, Summer has been preparing for the First Reconciliation Sacrament (aka: confession). It’s not like it was 30 years ago or how it’s always portrayed in the movies. Nick has been making Summer laugh with his childhood stories of confession — ‘Um, I hit my sister and didn’t…

  • Small Changes that Ripple

    For 10 years Nick has worked primarily from home. He definitely wanted separate workspace but just felt he could not justify the cost since it seemed unnecessary. But from tangible savings from not having a car, Nick finally felt like he could go for it. On November 1st he completed another trip around the sun…

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