Kehoe Beach Trail

Kehoe Beach Trail
2.5 miles
2 hours
Start: Historic J Ranch
End: Historic J Ranch
Includes: Historic J Ranch, Pierce Point Road, Kehoe Beach Trail, Kehoe Beach

Hike 3
January 8, 2013
Three-of-Swords
Heartache

Today I walked to Kehoe Beach from Historic J Ranch and back by myself. The card for this week is the tarot three-of-swords, with the theme of heartache, and I must admit I was experiencing a bit of my own heartache.

My boy's dad and I fought, which was scary for my kid, and a pall of anger and sadness hung over me.

Two little dogs barked threateningly at my ankles as I tried to get off their territory at Historic J Ranch. A field of cheerful yellow mustard flowers surrounded me on both sides.

I stopped to explore the various shooting modes on my camera. Sepia tone captured my mood perfectly.

I was glad to have a little extra time to dally and daydream.

I passed cows grazing on seaside granite and wondered if they ever think to themselves "I think I'll go to the beach today," like the beach is a different place, or is it all the same to them?

Sepia tone makes the bathroom at the head of the half-mile Kehoe Beach Trail look downright romantic.

I climbed along the muddy trail then chuffed through the sand.

I wondered if there might be some cosmic calculator tracking all the people who had ever sat on this bench seeking balm from the sea for an aching heart.

I stopped at the striated rock wall just before the beach and took a picture of myself. I look like a terse, old Norwegian.

The warm sun felt good radiating from the ancient rock, which used to reside under the sea.

The earth holds all of our pain. We can lie on the sand or press our face to rock or bathe our feet in the sea and the earth sends her healing.

I could hear the rhythmic crashing of the waves as I made it to the open beach.

I had found not one piece of trash on the road or trail and was kind of happy to see the cornucopia of human-created flotsam and jetsam tangled among the seaweed which recent storms had coughed ashore. At least I would get to be useful.

My frame of mind found resonance with the natural detritus, reminding me that nothing lasts forever and there is a certain beauty in death. It is strange to realize that at any given moment there is just as much death as there is life.

The difference with nature's detritus is it gets reabsorbed into the system and eventually supports life once again. Human trash often does not. It is a dead thing that stays dead and eventually poison life.

My sepia-toned frame of mind was casting a pall over my experience. You could say it was creating my experience on this glorious winter afternoon. I was focused on heartache, death and decay.

Going north along the beach I made a discovery: a waterfall. A stream was spilling over the granite cliff down onto the beach.

It was obvious others had been inspired by this phenomenon. Humans had made their marks by erecting a driftwood sculpture and carving names in the rock: art or trash?

I say it is art in that it uses natural materials which will be reabsorbed into the system within the natural cycle. Humans are human, after all, and our need and ability to create is what stands us apart from other animals.

Asking a human not to create is asking him or her not to be human. My only additional request is that our creations support life and not undermine it.

Now this is curious: a heart-shaped mass of seaweed crowned by three long-stemmed white roses. Perhaps the quantum field was sending me a message. I know my gloomy frame of mind was creating my experience, but this?

Quantum physics might assert that I was seeing this because I had collapsed all possibilities into this reality. I can say that had I not been contemplating the three-of-swords, I might have missed this strange configuration.

That being said, I don't care how hard my rational mind works to come-up with a logical explanation, it is pretty freaking unusual to find white, long-stemmed roses washed-up on the beach.

One more thing about the three-of-swords, three is the number of creation (i.e. one male, plus one female, creates one child) at least for most creatures. This means that the three-of-swords is a card of creation.

This creative principle can be interpreted for this card in that your emotions and thoughts (subjective world) affect what you do. What you do creates your world.

This is so on a material level and maybe so on a quantum level (judging by the heart of roses). That is why it is so important to understand your subjective world. It is the field from which material reality is created.

The good new is that even in a sepia frame of mind, I can still do something worthwhile for my fellow creatures! Viola, less trash on Kehoe Beach!