Esalen (day six)

Following the memory chain (or going down the rabbit hole): I’m attending a writing workshop in a house overlooking the surf at Big Sur ..listening to waves crash below ~ from there, I follow a chain of mental impressions that leads me to images of pelicans dive-bombing for fish off the coast of Santa Barbara ~ next I hear the sound of Karla yelling “bombs away” ~ then comes the time I almost got hit by a pelican off the coast of Newport Beach ~ now I’m watching Andy (my dog) chasing birds on the beach ~ now I’m watching Andy chasing Fred through the garage ~ Fred is a pet rat I inherited from my neighbor Richelle when she moved away ~ next, I’m posting ~ “ADOPT FRED" ~ on Craig’s list, complete with pictures ~ now I’m receiving a flaming reply that says ~ THAT’S NOT A RAT ..THAT’S A MOUSE ~ with pictures of rats on the left and mice on the right ~ I can’t tell the difference ~ another reply tells me who I should contact at the Humane Society ~ I see Laura drawing a finger across her throat like a knife ~ a death sentence, huh ~ a five year old girl appears at the door with her mother ~ I see the expression of delight on her face as she takes Fred home ~ I feel a connection with that little girl somehow (?) ~ maybe because I imagine her giving Fred a new lease on life. I had no idea where this would lead when I first sat down to write.

Harmonic presence: I meet Randy and his wife Vicky for dinner at the lodge ~ we go to Huxley auditorium and watch a performance of ‘Harmonic presence” ~ mostly sonorous Tibetan chants ~ echoes of the big bang ~ they explain ~ a symphony in space ~ the speaker asks “where does the sound end and listening begin” ~ and I wonder if the sound ever ends ~ perhaps it’s playing still ~ makes me think of my own theory of sound ~ how rhythm is so important for mental health ~ the first song a child learns is the sound of it’s mother’s heart beat ~ like a metronome ~ preparing the childs brain for connecting events that occur over time ~ like speech ~ signaling where one word ends and the other begins.

Didgeridoo in the baths: Afterwards, we go to the baths and listen to the sound of a ‘didgeridoo’ ~ the sonorous wave vibrates down to my core ~ and transports me into space ~ makes me wonder if alien life forms are listening ~ then I imagine my brain waves traveling there too ~ joining the symphony of space ~ alpha ~ beta ~ theta ~ radiating through the universe ~ where aliens, with clever minds, can pick them up ~ and track the progress of human kind.

We are stardust ~ Billion year old carbon ~ We are golden ~ Caught in the devils bargain ~ And we've got to get ourselves ~ Back to the garden ~ Joni Mitchell