Baja Log, 2009

Baja Log 2009

Bajalicious

4:30 AM. Cold, wet fog. I wake up, load surf boards and drive south. Sunrise at the border. Luscious. The crossing is a breeze; Tecate is beautiful. Baja is alive and Mexicans are as wonderful as ever. Driving through the Baja wine country the sky is lucent and I am absolutely popping (that's right, I said popping) with excitement. The blazing fall colors, the oak trees, rolling hills, tiny towns, oh, Baja. how could I forsake you?

After several hours of driving, starving, I park beside a carnitas stand in Vicente that I know and love from before. Eating delicious baja food, delighting in the feeling, in the kindness of the people. In a bakery, fresh, hot bread and something sweet for the road. The day passes, truly, like a dream. I am in another *country*! Just like that and I am in a foreign country. But it is far from foreign to me.

Eventually, road weary and tired I pull into one of my favorite places in Baja. A place of luxury without the cost of luxury. After a hot shower in the steamy, glassed-in bathroom, I sit on the enormous four poster bed in my silk bathrobe with the heat on and write and relax and read. This is heaven.

Tonight at midnight, I will bring in a new year in my life and a new year for America, for us all. Obama! And tomorrow, a new day, a new dawn, and all the beauty and wonder that is Baja, at my feet and at my fingertips, waiting to be reveled in.

Avanti!

New Years Eve 2009; New and Different

I expected to be on the beach with a bonfire at Alejandro's doing yoga at midnight. I gave up on my expectations and surrendered to what was actually happening. There is so much to be said for letting go of expectations and surrendering to what is.

Sitting next to a Christmas tree decorated with starfish Alicia and I had the largest and most delicious lobster I have had since the Philippines, along with refried beans, rice, tortillas, salsa and chips. A delicious Margarita, and for desert, delectable flan and hot coffee. It was an absolutely satisfying and complete meal.

At midnight looking up from my giant bed at the dark wooden beams on the fifteen foot ceiling I felt absolutely relaxed and happy. The explosions began and I looked out my door at a sparkling fireworks display painting the sky right outside in the ink black night. I squealed with delight; I love fireworks.

Back in bed it hit me, I am in a foreign country, I am in Mexico, I am in the legendary Baja, the dream of my childhood. And I am here now, someplace new and different. And it occurred to me that the theme for this new year is going to be "New and Different". I want to do new and different things this year. Break the old molds. I want to surrender completely to surfing and deepening my lifestyle of yoga. I want to learn something new, perhaps a new language, and of course the only way to do that is to live in a new country. I want to challenge myself in new ways. This is a new year, an Obama year, a brand new year to make a fresh start, to let go and rebuild, this is a year to do something new and different.

And now the dawn calls me onward.

Avanti

On the Beach

I stand like a stick in front of the ocean doing yoga. The morning breeze ruffles my hair and the sound of waves and seagulls is in my ears. I have found heaven at last.


Come to Baja; Learning Community

The drive from the border to here was beautiful and easy. Now, at last, home. A beautiful, protected bay with sand dunes at one end, a headland at the other, backed by mountains. Perfect waves. Little cabanas for five dollars a night. The perfect place for a retreat or a perfect winter of yoga and surfing. I envision creating a learning community and invite everyone to come and bring the skills that you are good at to share. Come to DJ and dance, come to make music, come to teach basic Baja first aid, come to teach yoga, meditation, ayurveda. Whatever it is you love to do come and share it and learn new things. All skills, practical, avant garde, intellectual, spiritual, are welcome. Let's create a Renaissance Community. I will be here and I welcome everyone to take a break and come learn and share and build something good; something intelligent and challenging and wonderful.
Come to Baja. Create something worthwhile and live now!

Avanti!

Desert Disco

I sit watching the waves at sunset, sipping a glass of mellow Malbec, (Argentina's premium wine) enjoying myself immensely and feeling ridiculously happy. It's cold and overcast. I taught morning yoga in the sand dunes to an enthusiastic group of women from last night's dance party. Ah, the dance party.

On arrival here I informed everyone that we were having a dance party last night. I spent the day preparing the music and after a fish taco and tequila dinner we all gathered at dark at my bungalow. To say it was a success would be such a gross understatement as to insult the affair. Let us say that words would fall far short of the event. But if ever twelve people burned down the house and set the desert on fire, last night was the night.

DJ Desert Wave was in his DJ booth in the Motherhsip, blue lights behind him, speakers pumping, dancing from the deck. Inside the little cabana it went off. Between glowsticks, tequila and twelve explosive surfer boys and girls looking to blast off, this party rocked hard and was serious dance, dance, dance. I don't know how long it went on but I was amazed at the energy and high that everyone sustained all night. It was like an epic Zurich techno party that never ended. I had created a mix with about 70 songs and when the last one played the crowd was still wild as I closed the doors to the Mothership and bid adieu to my new friends.

This is what I dreamed life could be like. It can be very good. Very, very good.

Avanti.

Our House, in the Middle of the Desert

I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of water and realize it's raining in the desert. Wonderful. In the grey and blustery morning I move into a new house. Now, for five dollars a night, I have a bungalow, directly on the beach, literally in front of the long, right hand point break where I surf. The bungalow is wonderful. My hammock hangs so I can lay in it and look at the break. From the Mothership I can see the sunrise from bed when I wake up and the sunset in the evening. It is perfect here; exactly what I was looking for for the winter, a place in pure nature, with surfing, where I can practice and study and do all the things I want to do while living peacefully in pure nature. And I am within easy striking distance of the border and San Diego. Perfect.

Now, in the grey rain and chill I lay in my hammock, sipping chai and feeling utterly at peace.

The Magic Begins

I wake up alone in the Mothership to the sound of waves in the darkness of predawn. I drink hot water and scrape my tongue. Then as the sky begins to pale towards sunrise I do neti, nauli, ohm for a while, kapalabhati, then anuluoma viluoma and finally tonglen while the sunrise spreads over the sand dunes, the volcano, and across my little bay. It could not be more perfect. Now it is time for morning yoga in the dunes. Life is perfect. My cabana is literally on the break; I could not be closer, and the Mothership is parked beside my cabana, facing the sunrise and the waves. It is perfect. My solar shower hangs outside my cabana, my hammock inside. Everything is just right.

Avanti.

Simple Pleasures

The owner of the land where I am living, Sergio, offered to take me to town to get water and groceries. First we stopped by his house in the tiny fishing village and his wife invited me for coffee and breakfast and then Sergio, his two little boys and I made the hour drive into town in the rain. It was a simple but wonderful day. They taught me the local names for the flora and fauna, the different cactus and desert plants, told me about the hot springs and Spanish mission, showed me all I needed to know about town, and where to get provisions and I took them out for a chicken dinner. ;-) There is a wonderful feeling that is had by generosity that cannot be had in any other way. Simple acts of generosity are healing.

Back at camp I sat by a fire with friends from Northern Cali eating fresh fish tacos from the yellow tail they had caught and talking about Baja. Then sat with another group of friends by their fire sipping wine and eating Lindor chocolate talking about life and good things.

Ahhh, Baja, ah Baja.

Avanti.

First Day

Sitting onboard the Mothership at sunset on my first day alone in Baja I feel like Robinson Crusoe. It is almost, in a way, better than New Zealand, because here, I have the Mothership, and she has everything I need. My library, my musical instruments, laptop, stereo, chef knives, favorite foods; it's all here within my reach. And as the cold offshore wind blows the sand from the dunes like a ground mist into the oncoming waves, I am warm an protected inside this golden sanctuary Eof mine. So much has happened in such a little time here. For dinner tonight I steamed fresh, giant clams with butter, garlic and herbs and had a feast and felt like a king. I cannot imagine wanting more than this right now. Boredom would be impossible here. If I am not surfing, there is yoga, or exercise, or harmonium, guitar, electric guitar, a library of books to study and work my way through, dunes to explore, desert mountains to hike, food to cook, the rising and setting of the sun to watch and wine to drink, dark chocolate to eat, poetry. I am alone and in love with my aloneness for the time being.

It strikes me that three years ago I sat here, in this same cabana, parked in this same spot, in the old Motherhship, with a girl I loved. And that I have loved none since then. And wonder if ever I will again. Surprisingly there are no sad or fond memories, no pain or sentimentality. After three years at last just a blank slate and a beautiful desert and fresh, clean waves.

Avanti.

El Norte

A cold wind comes ripping out of the north. I hear the waves surging and the moonlight glitters like blue diamonds on the sand. Perhaps each of us has our own destiny to follow, as for me, I feel I was born to live this way. Alone on a deserted beach, alone in nature, with my surfboards, my yoga, my musical instruments, my books and my brain and my body, far from any road or sign of development. This was the same surging joy I felt in New Zealand sleeping under pine trees or on the beach, swimming and bathing in wild, clear rivers. Like a child at play on a fresh, green planet, untouched by concrete and human hands. This desert and sea is similar in a way to that New Zealand. There is nothing but wind, sky, sand and sea. There is endless possibility and great, fathomless joy here, in this freedom, in this nature, in this vast emptiness of sea, sky and sand. I am content. I have no past here, no future, only this.

Paradise Found

Stand back Milton, my God, this place is amazing. Seven of us, (coincidentally most are from Santa Cruz) living at one end of the little bay with the amazing sunrises and sunsets, have formed and impromptu community and family, dancing, jamming, hanging out, eating and surfing together. Today, five of us out surfing, all friends, all encouraging, wonderful. In the afternoon Jewel gave me my first sight reading lesson in my life and it was amazing, so exciting, it's literally learning a new language. And then translating the music I can read to the notes on the keyboard is like writing a new language. Once I can read music I can read my chant books for my harmonium chanting. My harmonium playing took me right into a very deep yoga session looking out to the waves from my cabana. A pod of dolphins slowly made their way through our bay and through the waves of our point break. Life is so simple here, so good. Surfing, yoga, cooking, eating cleaning dishes, playing music, reading, studying, just amazing. And the desert, green from the rain, is also beautiful. The beach and bay with dunes at one end and a headland and desert at the other, is luminous and gorgeous. The stars at night, sitting by a campfire at night, the smell of campfire on my clothes, lobster tacos; it's magic here. I realize how little I need to be happy, shelter, food, hygiene and things to keep my body, mind and spirit strong and healthy.

Splendour/The Days

The splendour of the mornings are breathtaking and peace fulfilling. I am reminded of being four years old in the Summer in Texas waking up in my bedroom, in my bed with crisp white sheets, to the breeze blowing in the open bedroom windows. The curtains would blow up on that breeze and float in the air horizontally and sink gently back down over and over and the cool, early morning breeze would gently wake me. It is perhaps the fondest memory of my childhood, associated with my mother. And here after yoga, lying on my mat I have the same feeling.

The days here pass as I had dreamed they would. In the morning, up at dawn and yoga purifications, neti, nauli, then pranayama and meditation, Ohming, kapalabhati, anuluoma viluoma, tonglen. Wonderful breakthroughs in meditation and pranayama, filling my body with prana, energy, oxygen. Then morning yoga specifically for my back. By then a power smoothie, with bee pollen, blue green algae, spirulina, maca root powder, goji berries, banana, blueberries, papaya, rice dream. Of course either homemade chai or a wonderful tea somewhere in the morning.

The purifications prepare me for meditation and pranayama, which prepares me for yoga asana, which prepares me for my music practice which is another goal for this trip and a wonderful new language and delight-learning to read music and play chants on the harmonium out of the two chant books I have.

The rest of the day is dedicated to surfing, hiking on the land, reading, situps, pushups, pullups, cooking, and in the evening is my intense yoga session and more harmonium. The evening yoga can sometimes just go on and on and not stop at all, followed by more meditation until I go to sleep at night.

It is perfect. I had three main goals for this trip, yoga, surfing, learn harmonium, plus study. Each day I get stronger, healthier, and browned by the sun. My goals are being realized and I am in heaven.

As my life progresses through its stages, I realize that with time and years there seems to be more and more external pressure to "go mainstream", "start thinking about the future before it's too late." etc. The younger you are the easier it is to ignore this helpful advice because the future is so far away. The older I am and the nearer and nearer the future gets to the present, the more integrity it takes to continue to live the path that calls me. This is a positive step in that path.

Full Moon Baja

Exactly one full moon ago I spent the night hiking, doing yoga, meditating, climbing rock formations in the high cold desert in Joshua Tree National Park until I watched the sunrise, the full moon before that I slept on the roof of the Mothership on the cliffs high above Big Sur, watching the moon, reading Rumi and playing the guitar all night.

Now, one full moon later I walk down an endless beach. The ocean on my right, the waves sound like the whispering of ghosts. At the end of the beach the sand dunes, glowing, are surreal in the moonlight. I expect to see Egyptian pyramids rising out of them but I don't. I walk for a long time, breathing, not thinking too much, looking at the world around me. Eventually I come to a place where I am looking at a pool of water sparkling the reflected moonlight in the breeze, the waves murmuring far away now. I stand and look at the beauty. Today the wind howled out of the north and blew the sand off the dunes in pale serpentine ribbons along the dark wet sand into the ocean like thousands of lost souls drowning themselves in the sea. The night goes on and on and I walk and walk.

Lovely Night in Baja

The moon is bright and round, the waves are soft and gentle, the breeze is fresh, but not cold. A warm campfire and the great smell of woodsmoke on my clothes. A belly full of tri-tip, potatoes, corn and homemade muffins and cookies, pleasant and enjoyable conversation. The stars are out. This is another wonderful night in Baja. Take a deep breath and say Baja-ahhhhhh.

Pure Happiness

Every day in Baja is different. This morning I woke up as usual, with the sky just turning light above the eastern mountains. I was so blissfully comfortable in my bed. I sat up and a smile of pure happiness came from inside me and spread to my face. I felt deeply happy. I stepped out into the dark morning and called by nature began walking down the long beach, feeling happy and singing to myself. At the end of the beach, again, called by nature, I climbed into the soft dunes and sat down and did my practices, chanting ohm, kapalabhati, anuluoma viluoma, tonglen. And it was wonderful. The practices fill the body with prana, energy, oxygen, life force. (although I will note that I find doing them in a small cave much more powerful) After these, I simply sat in a feeling of warm bliss, filling me. Happiness. From a feeling of loving warmth I asked if I could find a way to use my talents to help other people and to have a good life. Finally, smiling and feeling so happy inside I got up and walked back along the beach, the sun rose and my back warmed up and I walked back here, to my little home on the beach.

The Sound of Waves

I wake up before dawn to the soft, whirring, swirling, and gentle booming of waves. I lay in the utter comfort and softness of this cocoon of lambskin, flannel and down, letting the breeze move around me and letting morning come slowly, spreading from darkness to light across the east, adding soft, smeared, pastel color increasing in intensity with time to blazing hues of burnished gold, molten copper, melted saffron. The sunrise becomes a flaming bird of paradise.

There are no sounds here of phones, of cars, planes, the ticking of clocks, (I haven't seen a clock for two weeks) or any sound that is man-made. The only sounds are the waves, the wind, sea gulls and birds, barking of seals, singing of coyotes, the crackling of a campfire at night, the sound of my guitar and harmonium, my voice singing and occasionally the sound of other human voices, in conversation or laughing. I have heard no harsh sounds here.

It is hard to describe what the sounds of nature and none other, over time, do to heal the soul and balance the entire being. The rhythm of stars, moon, sun, waves, and tides. The days of yoga, meditation, pranayama, surfing, harmonium, guitar, push ups, sit ups, pull ups, cooking and eating, walking in nature, studying, stars. Each day and moment is new and different yet there is a theme, a pattern of stability, a trochal pattern that lends order, focus, and direction to my time, achieving goals, growing, expanding, which is why I came--to grow.

I know each of us is different. As Joni Mitchell sings "Where some find their paradise, others come to harm." But I also think that we are products of our environment and are so subtly shaped by that that we often have no reference point to step outside of our conditioning to question the nature of our lives. We live in a society that tells us very clearly from the moment of birth that there is only one viable path, you get a job, you save money, to participate in the society you are born into. You work to save money and prepare for 'old age'.

I do not say this is wrong. I say only that everyone is different and that this is not the only way. I further say, that from my point of view it is entirely unnatural. We are not meant to live our lives in cities full of concrete and cars, racing from home to work and back, earning money to survive and pay bills and be the slave of a system that has us ensnared, blindly. We are human beings and if we recall, we will remember that technology was created, ostensibly, to free up our time so we could have leisure for the finer things in life. Yet we spend more and more of our time working and being part of the machine; that is undeniable. And more and more, in this generation, it's taken for granted that that is the way it is and that any other way is just crazy.

I disagree. I think the real madness is racing around in a car, in a city, to work, to the cleaners, to the mall, buying things you don't really need at all, paying bills, running endless errands, sitting in front of a computer on the internet, and working working working to pay endless bills and spend money on things you don't need all so you can keep a machine afloat and huge profits rolling in for billionaires and corporations that rape the planet, rape our minds and rape our time. What happened to reading, making music, poetry, the arts, intellectual life, the art of conversation, a classical education, critical thinking, nature, living on, and with, the land? What happened to walking barefoot on the earth, to sleeping with the coming of nightfall and arising with dawn? When was the last time you walked barefoot on the earth or sat in front of a fire by the beach, slept to the sound of waves and wind caressing your hair, walked far in the dunes under the stars? I simply suggest that there *is* another way, and that selling your soul to a credit card is not the only way, and in fact is not the way at all.

Phoenix in Wonderland

I sit in my hammock, floating in space, watching the waves glide off the point, bundled up against the chill of the evening wind blowing outside my cabana. Today the desert taught me new things.

On a spontaneous urge I followed an arroyo into the desert away from the ocean and into an entirely different universe. The diversity and beauty of the flora was stunning. Rich, living plants, vivid in colors set in a matrix of desert rock in rich shades of red brown. It dawned on me that for thousands of years people lived here. They were born into nature with a legacy of wildcraft born of 5000 years of trial and error. They must have been completely intimate with every aspect of the land in ways we cannot begin to conceive of any more than they could have conceived of cars, airplanes, refrigerators, electricity, ice, stores, processed food. The men must have hunted from childhood throughout the term of their functional lives; they must have been superb shots with all their weapons to a degree that we also cannot imagine. Imagine shooting a bow and arrow as a way of life and survival from earliest childhood onward, the kind of shot you'd have to be, as natural as breathing.

I wondered, with their vast ocean of understanding of nature, they must have had abundance and perhaps leisure time, what kind of social life they had time to develop, family structure, communal living. As I walked I was entranced with trying to imagine and relive their world based on what I saw around me. What did they make their homes from? The most abundant building supply here is rock. A picture of their lives began to come together as I almost transported myself into their world. They must have snared animals at night, fished in the ocean, hunted. They must have known and used the plants like a grocery store and pharmacy. Water? There must have been water and times were less dry. In the winter here by the coast, in the summer, up to the mountains along the spine of Baja for more forested, greener, environs. I could literally, with my eyes open, see them there around me, going about their lives and I realized it was the same experience I had in Joshua Tree, actually feeling and seeing them around me as though I were juxtaposed in time into their world.

I came to a rock with petroglyphs etched into it and studied them for a long time trying to get a sense of what they were signifying. Climbing above the rock out of the arroyo I found a little shrine made of rocks and tiles that my friend had made in the place where a visitor here had placed his father's ashes. I sat and without meaning too, instantly went into meditation, the vibration was so strong. And I learned something new in this meditation. It's fine to do loving kindness meditation for one's friends and family, but this is easy because they are in effect, part of you, one is attached to one's friends and family, wishing them unconditional love is not a hard thing to do. But offering loving kindness meditation to everyone else, and really meaning it, *that* is a real loving kindness mediation. Offer loving kindness to the people you are indifferent to, to ones you don't know, offer it to their dog, to all beings, and really feel it and mean it and that is the next step in developing real loving kindness for all beings. Once again I realized that we are here, not to receive, but to give. Contrary to the nature of our egos, which tell us happiness comes from getting, from taking care of me, me, me, in truth real happiness comes from giving to others.

It was a magical experience. A raven began to circle me high in the sky and eventually, while I watched it in fascinating detail, spiraled down lower and lower until it was ten feet away, hovering above me against the strong wind, remaining stationary. His flight was amazing. His absolute mastery of his element and the fluid grace with which he floated in the sky, or dove down towards me doing a barrel roll and straightening back up, was ecstatic to observe. His partner came and they made cawing noises at me and wattling noises to each other, communicating and landed nearby and watched me.

Eventually I ran home, singing running songs to pace myself. I felt the joy and excitement of that most wonderful of gifts, a pure delight in and electric inquisitiveness about, life, nature, how things work, this planet and all who live here and the universe she hurtles through.

Heaven is right here, where you are, right now; heaven is in the eye of the beholder.

Perfect Days

Images of Baja: A misty early morning on the beach, so reminiscent of California gives me a warm feeling of nostalgia. Lying in the sand dunes watching the fine film of sand blow over the surface of the desert, following the contours of least resistance, on their way to be blown into the sea. The electric pink, papaya orange and passion fruit purple of sunrise and the knife-edge of blue shadow and golden light as the first sunlight angles low across the dunes. Lying on the roof of the Mothership at night looking up at a blazing panoply of stars and with burning curiosity refreshing my knowledge of the constellations and stars, Sirius, Procyon, Pollux, Castor, Cappella, Aldebaran, Sirius (8.5 light years closer to us than any other star), and recalling the wonderful Greek myths in Ovid's Metamorphosis about some of the constellations. Deep daily yoga and pranayama sessions. Hours of laying, floating in space, in my hammock, looking at, and listening to, the ocean and reading a gripping historical fiction novel. The silence and solitude of being on a vast tract of nearly uninhabited desert peninsula, surrounded by ocean and sea and sky. The waves. The long, beautiful, peeling waves that roll in off the point, and surfing them, carving up and down, getting stronger and better and learning more about the ocean with every session. The childlike thrill of being alive, of learning, of everything seeming new and fresh and for the first time, the excitement of waking up and thinking of all the wonderful things the day holds in store. And always the sound of the ocean, always the rumble and swirring, hissing, booming, of the waves. This is Baja.


The Gift of Giving

One day, practice selfless giving, all day long, in every way you can, with no thought of return. Or try it for one week. Just give every time you have an opportunity, or makes opportunities, go out of your way to find ways to give to others, seek ways to help others, without any thought of gain for yourself. And at the end of the day, or the week, you will see the difference in the quality of your life and it will seem almost magical. The degree of inner happiness, peace, joy, and satisfaction will so far outweigh any rewards you ever thought you gained by trying to 'get' for yourself that it becomes crystal clear that selfless giving is without question the most effective way for true happiness, satisfaction and contentment that we have here on earth.

And more than just happiness, selfless giving is a cure for illness and disease. I can almost guarantee you that if you suffer from a disease, a condition, stress, so many modern diseases, that by selfless giving, in some way that may seem magical or mysterious, you will be healed. It is the act of selfless giving that puts the mind and body in such a state that one becomes free of an inner weight, an inner tension, that we aren't even aware is there, and instead we are filled with a lightness, and an inner happiness and peace, bliss, directly related to the act of selfless giving.

I know it is hard to go against the primal dictates of the ego, like going against nature, but once you try it and get the results, you'll be amazed that you didn't discover this basic principle and act on it from birth, why you weren't inculcated into this reality from childhood--selfless giving and loving kindness, to all beings, in fact especially to strangers, even more than loved ones, is the greatest act of self-benefit that we can engage in during our brief sojourn on earth. Giving to, and loving kindness to, strangers is even more healing in a way than to the one's we hold dear, because our dear ones our an extension of our own ego, and the ego has a vested interest in their well being since it's own 'status' is tied up in their success. Give to strangers selflessly and give yourself the greatest gift you can have, the gift of health, of true happiness and peace. Life is very short. Start today and get the results today. Be happy now.

The Machine

The body is a machine. Like all machines, when it runs at high rpm over time, it eventually burns up and dies. In modern life our bodies are almost constantly running at very high rpm and we don't even realize it. We drink coffee and take stimulants to get energy, we are under nearly constant stress at work or in the discharge of our daily duties in modern life, always on the go, paying bills, trying to make ends meet, in traffic, rushing here and there. The fact is that for most of us, because this high stress lifestyle is taken for granted we don't even take the time to feel our body and realize that it is constantly revved up and overworked, the inner vibration, the inner rpm is idling way too fast.

Yoga heals. Yoga heals in many ways and one of the them is that it brings deep body awareness, body consciousness. With the body awareness that yogic practices bring one may become aware for the first time of the hyper-vibration and inner tension, wound up too tightly, of the body, and then, once realizing this state, consciously slow down the body's vibration, reduce the rpm, release the constant tension that was being held unconsciously. With a big sigh, one can let go of the inner tension, and drop the rpm down to a much lower idling state. And like all machines, at a lower rpm, the engine lasts much longer, doesn't overheat and needs less maintenance.

Yoga practices can be very simple and take up not much time each day; they can be done at home, in the morning, alone, or with the family, or a friend or loved one. By investing thirty minutes or even an hour each morning, the immediate joy and relaxation, and the long-term health benefits, the increased longevity, freedom from disease, and well-balanced health of all the systems of the body and of the mind, are incalculable. Imagine that by thirty minutes or an hour a day of enjoyable yoga you are preventing diseases that otherwise would eventually come. It's the best 'bargain' you'll ever get.

As always, just try a simple experiment and decide for yourself. Learn a basic pranayama, like kapalabhati and anuluoma viluoma and a few basic postures, and try it daily for a week, or a month, and then simply observe your level of energy and health. It's self-evident. As time goes by you get younger, more supple, healthier, in all systems of the body and in the mind. But like all things, in order to get the benefit, you have to do the work. And there is no time like right now to begin.

Be healthy, be happy. Today and forever.

Avanti.

Burning the Beach

The nature of the morning is lucent. Pure light, radiating from everywhere, like a Tibetan Buddhist vision of reality--clarity and light. An absolute perfection of temperature, stillness of wind, calm of ocean, silence of place but for an occasional twitter of a bird and swashing ripple rolling ashore that befits a glorious Sunday morning. Instead of 4:00AM I wake up late and then lie, blissfully happy, in bed, feeling waves of joy and pleasure at just being here and alive. Languorously I make my morning chai, the delicious nectar that begins my days. In my cabana, with a smile, I note the remains of last night's sonic orgy. A djembe and guitar sit amidst a circle of cushions and sheets of songs, on the wall Barak Obama looks on with an expression of intelligence and determination. The virgin of the waves offers namaskar and watches in serenity. This is my home.

In the Mothership, watching the light play on the ocean, the desert, the sand dunes, I sip chai and simply revel in being. The beginning of my second month in paradise.

Last night Olie, Lia' and I started our band. He played drums, she sang and I played guitar. It was amazing and wonderful. To feel that utterly tight connection between fellow musicians, locked rhythmically into his drumming , and simultaneously to the nuances of her voice, a musician's paradise--to find others to make music with, not just people to perform for.

After, on the beach, with the constellations and Milky Way shining overhead, they spun fire to the best thumping beats I have heard since Burning Man. I felt like I was at Burning Man. Burning Beach. Re-soaking and re-lighting their poi over and over, performing solo and tandem, they were good, wonderfully skilled, and the music was transporting. I couldn't believe how lucky I was, how serendipitous it was for them to show up. I danced and danced listening to the whirring of the flames as it spun past their heads. Eventually I fell asleep standing on my feet dancing. It was heaven. These are the gifts of the desert.


Deliciously Decadent

Boredom is the mother of Creativity. Next time you're stuck in the desert with nothing but avocados, milk, sugar and cocoa powder try this amazing desert mousse:

Baja Mud

1 TBS Dagoba cacao powder
fresh whole milk
raw sugar, 1 tsp to 1 TBS (to taste)
Mexican raw cane sugar in the pylon form, 1 TBS
vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp
One perfectly ripe avocado
variations:
shredded coconut
cacao nibs
whipped cream

Prior to beginning take the Mexican sugar and mixed in a little water until it dissolves and forms a thick syrup.
Add syrup, sugar, milk, vanilla and cacao powder to Magic Bullet and blend until smooth.
Add avocado and blend until mousse consistency.
Trying serving topped with a little raw coconut, cacao nibs and whipped cream to taste.

You won't find better in the best of restaurants, much less in the desert in Baja.
Enjoy!

Profound

Standing on a point of black rock, looking at the sun about to set beside the islands on the horizons and a rock, rising in silhouette, out of the ocean. The moment is ineffable. I flashback to sunsets on beaches around the world in my past until a mental voice says, "Don't compare this ocean sunset with past ones; let it be as new and fresh as they once were, without comparison." and suddenly I am *here*, *now*, and the epiphany takes hold.

I am compelled, magnetized like a compass needle into the earth, into yoga postures. The energy moving like a lightning rod, posture after posture moves through me, in a deep trance. I rotate each different posture to the four directions. I watch the sunset, the desert mountains, the ocean. I am swept with powerful waves of energy and yet am still and silent, inward. As darkness descends I follow the narrow path over the rocky headland back to my own beach.

In my cabana the photo of Obama on the cover of Time magazine on a shelf on my wall, like an altar, catches my eye. Looking into his eyes, at his expression, suddenly something deeply emotional happens inside me. I am compelled to press my forehead to his, exactly as the Tibetan rinpoches do as a sign of love and connection. Holding it there, looking into his eyes and I am moved by a profound feeling of connection that is almost supernatural, a concern, a caring, a brotherhood that is deep, to my core, beyond my veils of ego. I eventually step back looking into his eyes and a tear tries to find its way out of my eyes. Pulling myself away, I feel I need to move this powerful energy in my body by being in nature.

Walking down my beach in the falling darkness, mesmerized by waves. Suddenly the weather is comfortably warm. It feels delicious. Frozen in a trance state, gliding through life, feeling, feeling this moment unfold timelessly into bliss.

At the end of the beach I take off my clothes and run all the way back, breathing out of my nostrils, heart pounding. I feel alive, purified, purged. At home, moving consciously, deeply inward, in a ring of lit candles I find myself in a yoga session. Melting into each posture, feeling, feeling. A long shivasana. Eventually, coming out of my trance, I go directly into pranayama and meditation until late in the night. Coming out of it, like moving from a dream to a dream, I simply float to the Mothership, open my bed, and let the trance take me into a deep peaceful sleep. This was my desert journey last evening.



February 11, 2009
A Storm in Heaven

The wind was outrageous and the blackness inky. I parked the Mothership beside a house as a windbreak in the middle of the desert and waited out the wild storm. At 4AM I rose and waited in the cold, buffeting wind until 5 to start driving. By 6 I realized I was going to run out of fuel. The desert was green and full of water and the temperature had dropped fifteen degrees overnight. I found some truckers who gave me five gallons of diesel from their tanks and I bought them breakfast. We sat drinking coffee and eating huevos racncheros as the sun came up, shivering in the cold, and I felt like I was in a good novel, or that I was eighteen and just beginning to explore the wonders of the unknown world.

I drove hard, through desert rainbows and wind and made the States before nightfall. I am in Cardiff now and glad to be home. I was planning to resupply and head straight back down south. Now I'm not so sure. Home is a very good place to be.

I have a desire to create a program I will call "Forever Young" that would teach the practical application of yoga and ayurveda for longevity and health. I have much to share and I need to share it. I am sure there is a population out there who could benefit so much from these lifestyle information. The crux is to find them, reach them and share with them.

Soul Surfer Sunset

Peeling waves, alone, set after perfect set, ride after ride. The sunset smeared across the western sky in vermilion, oranges and pinks. I catch, ride and glide, wave after wave. Sunset fades, darkness descends, the waves glitter in the light of the gibbous moon. This is perfection.

Night Into Morning

I don't know where the nights go or why I don't sleep. When was the last night of sleep I got? Not last, or before that. Not tonight. The whirring of cars on the freeway sounds like waves. I could pull stakes and start driving to Baja now, in the middle of the night. Not a safe thing to do. And in the morning one more chocolate donut and coffee before the long run south. Deep south to warm water this time. Just me and my boards, my harmonium, my yoga mat, and my destiny. I should be asleep. There is no reason for me to be awake. I have not slept in nearly a week; or is it over a week. Eventually I will fall under the spell of sleep, at some point before the sun rises but what a far cry from Baja when I arose at 4:30 and slept soon after darkness fell. Now there is just the waiting for morning. The waiting for donuts and coffee and then the long journey will begin. Fill the tank, hit the border, change money, and drive. A car full of food, no need to stop for that. Fill the water bottles along the way. A three-day drive to arrive at my destination. Three long days in Baja. From the cold to the warmth. Fish tacos, Mexican bakeries, and above all warm water. Three weeks and then a long drive back to the states and halfway across them to Texas. But for now, simply sleepless, anxious, hungry and craving my chocolate donuts and coffee. In five and half hours I can make that real. And not before.

Then what will I find? What do I love? Surfing, dancing, dj'ing, yoga, exercising, nature, backpacking. Do I love Baja? No. But Baja I can afford. And the water will be warm. And that is enough for now.