December 13th 2023, Esalen

It was probably 2009, a few months after I moved across the planet to America for my Masters. But what it really was was my first encounter with the blue, vast, infinite Pacific Ocean. I had a rust colored dress on and I was happy. I remember because I have a picture of me from then. I was happy. It didn’t matter that I was still hurting from a painful breakup, I was full of joy. It was not just highway 1, it was not just California, it was the land and space around Big Sur. What is it about this place that makes it so special? Why am I drawn to it?

It’s 2023 and it’s my fifth time (!!!) at Esalen. It’s a beautiful retreat which has somehow managed to become a microcosm of everything Big Sur is. It’s a place of joy, connection and coming into your own path. It offers an altered state of being with a community of other seekers. But what it really offers is access to Big Sur. There’s the ocean with different shades of blue, aquamarine, cobalt, green, turquoise, dark blue with its waves foaming in white lapping against white-topped rocks, creating whirlpools for as far back as you can see and merging with the blue open vast sky. This is the backdrop of hills laden with trees paining a pretty silhouette against the sun rising and the ocean glistening, sparkling the same sparkle you see as night turns in and you watch the sulphur vapors from the hot springs, but when you look up the same sky is studded with countless stars which glisten the same way. They, the ocean and the sky are just playing catch with all that sparkles. Star dust and magic. The monarch butterflies, warblers, sparrows, stellar jays, hawks, seagulls, and of course the barking sea lions, raccoons, lizards teach you how to be. Like the otter on its back floating with the waves in the ocean every now and then playing, turning over and back on its back again. 

Big Sur has the elements – water, air, wood but not fire. The living beings witnessing it perhaps brings the fire element. The beauty I sense is perhaps from the fire I breathe and to see the land respond, and perhaps that’s why there is alchemy happening at Big Sur or as it’s more commonly called—Magic.