Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock
6 miles
3 hours
Start: South Beach
End: Chimney Rock Parking Lot
Includes: Sir Francis Drake, Historic C Ranch, Historic B Ranch, Historic A Ranch, Chimney Rock Trail, Chimney Rock

Hike 19
April 19, 2013
Five-of-Cups
Regret

The five of cups shows a man draped in a black robe bent over three spilled cups. In the distance are a bridge and a castle. Behind him, two full cups stand at his feet.

With this card in mind, I headed from the road at South Beach to Chimney Rock. Earlier, my friend Simone followed me so I could drop my car at the parking lot near Chimney Rock. The total one-way hike was about six-miles.

I passed through three of the ranches, Historic C, Historic B and Historic A ranch. On the south end of A ranch, the road branches. I took the left branch to Chimney Rock.

April is definitely the month to do this hike. Wildflowers were everywhere.

I decided to keep an eye out for Pussy Ears, since I had never seen them before. Very near the end of the trail I spotted a number of them in the grass. The really do look like a triad of furry cat ears!

I took a five-step detour to the right. It took me to the edge of the cliff. Below was a glorious beach on the Point Reyes headlands full of seals.

I lie on my belly listening to their barking and focused on relaxing as much as they were. It was a wonderful moment to be a seal or a human acting like a seal or a human acting like a human.

Regret takes us out of the present moment. The guy in the card is facing left, which is symbolic of the past. To re-something means to do again and is this not the lament of regret "if only I had it to do over again?"

Coming into the present moment is an antidote to regret. If we put our focus on what is in front of us, we see we have choices and chances to respond to the world in a new way.

In terms of trash, anything that takes us from the flow of the moment could be considered trash. Trash is a physical object formed from natural resources through the use of energy. If the resulting item remains past its usefulness, unable to be reabsorbed into the whole, it is trash.

Emotions and thoughts are like objects. When they arise from the flow, they give us useful information about whether or not our needs are being met. If we hold on to them, especially negative emotions, we are carrying around emotional baggage (a.k.a. trash).

In the process of becoming enlightened, we jettison this emotional trash and literally lighten ourselves. The experience is visceral. I liken this experience to becoming naked. When we are naked, we allow ourselves to be seen.

We can do this with our clothes on or off. When we become naked we allow ourselves to be exactly as we are. We allow ourselves, moment by moment, to arise and to be reabsorbed into the appropriate context of the natural world. We walk free of prop or convention.

The experience of being naked allows us to respond appropriately to the environment, much like a falcon when he hunts. When he hunts, he is 100 percent focused on the task. Eyes are focused, muscles are configured for perfect strike and objective is clear. There is no baggage for the bird.

He is unlikely thinking "oh, I so should have gotten that mouse. I'm so lame; I'll never amount to anything." No, he lets the impact of the fruitless strike shake through him and he is 100 percent ready to try again. He does not burden himself with regret.

To be naked does not make us less human. It only makes us less like the humans we have become. It is is the fussy, overdressed, over fed, over consuming, trash making human we let go of.

When we let that human go, we strip down to the essential qualities of the human animal. Being human, with these highly complex brains, leaves each of us with a lot of potential for expression of our individuality.

If we allow ourselves to relax into our essence unafraid that we are not good enough, we become appropriate to the environment. When we employ our human genius from the appropriate flow, our creations are appropriate to maintaining this flow instead of junking up the environment with our creations inspired by fear and greed.

Sea, sand, sun, sky, seal, flower, falcon and human are all appropriate to the environment. From this moment forward, let us act in means towards ends appropriate to the environment and we will have no need for regret.

You will see Chimney Rock in the water, at the end of the trail. It used to have a chimney-shaped formation, which has since crumbled off. It is, nonetheless, beautiful.