North Beach
2 miles
1.5 hours
Start: Bull Point Trail Parking Lot
End: Bull Point Trail Parking Lot
Including: Sir Francis Drake, North Beach, Point Reyes Beach

Hike 16
March 29, 2013
Two-of-Cups
Intimacy

The Two-of-Cups shows a man and a woman sharing a moment of intimacy. This card symbolizes an intimate connection between two living creatures of any kind. It is the number two that gives it its distinctive quality.

With two, there is an observer and the observed. Since they are the only two involved in the interaction, each actor has an equally important part. We come to know ourselves through our intimate relationships with others.

With this card in mind, we headed to the Bull Point Trail parking lot. Melinda was with me and, finally, my friend Mary. She has helped me out with rides and looking after Desmond, but today was the first day the cosmos aligned to allow her to walk with us.

We set-out down Sir Francis Drake Boulevard toward North Beach. To the left was a wonderful view of the mouth of Drakes Estero. This is similar to the view at the end of the Bull Point Trail, only more from the side. I never would have noticed this view, nor understood what I was looking at had we not done the Bull Point walk.

The California poppies were in bloom as well as the ice plant. The park service is working to eliminate the ice plant from the dunes as an invasive, non-native. Despite its status as an undesirable, it is beautiful with luminescent blossoms of morning yellow and baby-girl pink.

I walked upon two beetles enjoying a moment of passionate intimacy in the grass. Startled, they jumped up and ran-off still joined together. So sorry!

The weather changed often that week, we really didn't know what to expect. Mary walked ahead while Melinda and I lingered around picking up trash. I bent to inspect an interesting object.

It was a small, black pouch. Inside was a wad of cash and several credit cards. Further perusal revealed the owner's name was Faith Shoen. Really? Faith Shoen? Was the universe showing faith in us by losing this wallet in a place where only we would find it? Well, we would show that faith was not misplaced even if her wallet was. It was our day to make her happy.

We turned right down the road to North Beach. Despite earlier forecasts of rain, it was warm enough for shirtsleeves. We stopped to admire the variety of low-growing dune plants.

The dune landscape was a mosaic of silver, green, buff and blue accented with flecks from the pink and yellow blossoms.

Rounding the corner we came upon a full-blown California beach scene: surfers everywhere! You know what I love about surfers? They're cool! You know what makes them cool? They march to the beat of a different drummer: the sea.

They are attuned to a primal rhythm governing the pulse of all life. When the surf is up, it's up. There is no arguing. Priorities are set by something deep and true.

Apparently, Melinda likes surfers, too. And why not? She's in the same groove: the groove which sends her skinny-dipping in Tomales Bay the moment it's warm enough and into hillsides and valleys to harvest nature's medicinal bounty. Surely, we are all surfers at heart.

After a few moments, we spotted Mary looking like the Danish Little Mermaid gazing out to sea. She isn't actually Danish at all, more Irish: like a bottle of whiskey round the fire on a cold winter’s night with the jig just warming up. We sat for awhile enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Many of the problems we have with trash are because of a lack of intimate contact with nature. We look in our fellow humans' eyes for reflection of who we are. The problem is, if we are not connected first with nature, we do not know who we are. We are ungrounded and skittish.

Like in the two of cups, we learn who we are through intimate contact with others. As we make regular contact with nature, we learn her ways and rhythms. We discover parts of ourselves through the experience of contact. We are able to put names to the parts of ourselves which are dirt, sea, sky, fox, otter, beetle, poppy and plum. We hear our hearts beat in rhythm with the ocean. We understand that as we learn about nature, we learn about ourselves.

I remember an interview with Jane Goodall. The interviewer asked where she got the energy for the grueling, year-round, travel schedule she endured on behalf of the chimpanzees she was trying to save. She said she still carried within her the deep peace of the forest where she had spent years living in society with the chimps.

Walking Point Reyes, I feel a glimmer of that deep peace and I want more. It is a sense of belonging on this earth and of being ok. Internal agitation and chaos are quieted allowing direct access to the source of eternal energy that enlivens us all.

We cannot know only with our brains. Through nature we come to know with our senses. We have a visceral experience of connection with the cosmos. It is a sense of rightness, beauty and awe that we are in the right place at the right time.

Contact with nature fills-in the blank spots in our psyche. We become complete. This is what allows us to act on behalf of nature; we realize it is us. As it is, we are looking to fellow incomplete humans for ideas on how to live. What we need to right the balance between human activity and nature is development of a deep sense of our place. Our place is who we are.

As we deepen knowledge of ourselves, we have more to reflect back to our friends. When we look in each others eyes, we see we are ok; we belong. We are right as rain.