Sacramento Landing

Sacramento Landing
4.5 miles
2.5 hours
Start: Abbotts Lagoon Parking Lot
End: Sacramento Landing
Includes: Pierce Point Road, Duck Cove - Marshall Beach Road, Sacramento Landing, Tomales Bay

Hike 5
January 18, 2012
Five-of-Swords Release

The walk today started from the parking lot at Abbotts Lagoon and ended at Sacramento Landing on Tomales Bay. It was a beautiful day and I had just enough time to do the 4.5 mile hike before I had to pick-up Desmond from school. My friend Mary agreed to pick me up at the end of the walk and take me back to my car.

I headed south on Pierce Point Road. There was more trash here than on other parts of the road, especially plastic water bottles. I was under a time constraint, so I had to walk at a good speed.

I passed Historic Ranch H. It drew me in because it is close to the road. I wondered if the old horse was enjoying a nice retirement: grazing lush green pastures and gazing out to sea.

Also, I wondered what I look like to passers-by: some cranky old West Marin character spending her spare time on the roads with a trash picker. There's a lot of stuff you can do in your twenties and thirties that gets to looking cranky and eccentric in your fifties.

I put my head down and waked-on, passing an old rubber boot too big for my trash bag. Point Reyes was starting to look like my home: the pastoral field stretching-out to end in the familiar forests of the Inverness ridge. My heart quickened at the hint of home.

At exactly one-hour, I hit the intersection with Duck Cove-Marshall Beach Road. I turned left onto a new terrain. Talk about different wildlife; this Bed-and-Breakfast ecosystem was supporting exotic species!

Actually, the B and B is a really cool, glass tree-house.

I was pondering the five-of-swords and trying to come up with just the right word to describe the theme. The card shows a guy with an ugly smile on his face as he collects-up swords from the other guys he has defeated.

I prefer to cast the cards in a positive light, so I was struggling to make this negative-looking card into something positive. The reason I strive for the positive is because the point of using the tarot cards is to shed light on the human condition. It is extremely beneficial to bring the more negative parts of the human psyche to light.

So here is this guy collecting swords, sort of gloating. Looking at the jagged sky it is obvious something uncomfortable is going on. If you think of the four-of-swords in its deep meditation and extrapolate the story from there, this looks like a burst of activity instigated by an essential realization from the meditation. Realizations are often painful and realizations are what the swords are all about.

So the guy wakes up from his meditation, and this was essentially me because I had just spent four days at a B and B while my kitchen floor was being re tiled, and he sets-out on his task with new resolve, which is essentially me because I had all that good rest, and he says "Hey! I don't need you stupid losers around, you are holding me back, and he scares them off.

They run off crying while he collects his thoughts (the swords). These useless people no longer have any power over him. He realizes it’s him who decides who stays and who goes. He is in control of the thoughts he needs to continue on his journey. This is, of course, super scary because he must decide who stays and who goes.

What I'm talking about here is the realization that there are parts of ourselves that do not serve us on our journeys. When we recognize them, we must cull them from the herd of thoughts in our minds or we will never get where we need to go.

Fear of Cows

In my case, this manifested as a fear of cows. I was absolutely committed to walking to Sacramento Landing, and in order to do so, I would have to walk through fields of unsupervised, unrestrained cows. I was remembering the cows from I ranch and how they would have hopped in my lap without the fence to stop them.

So, in order to proceed, I had to deal with the part of my psyche that is afraid of cows. I walked over the cattle gate and the girls started to rush me. These seemed like teenage cows, all full of curiosity and energy and, thankfully, not too big.

Like with the curious tourists, I kept my head down and walked-on. I made it through, but realized I was a total chicken; I wasn't willing to stop and take any of the readily available, big cow close-ups.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I got to the fenced cows, and was chagrined when I got to Unrestrained Cow Pasture part II. I stopped, took a deep breath and a picture, before I crossed the cattle gate.

Shortly thereafter, the road opened into the beautifulness of Tomales Bay. The cow-threat had passed and I could revel in the special gift of this bay coastline. I wondered how many people walk this particularly remote road each year.

Another fear cropped-up as I passed the private-road sign. Maybe they would cast me out of this little bit of paradise. I wasn't that clear on the rules of passage for this road, but I had already determined to pass for the sake of the project.

At the bottom, I got to a delicious little cove and saw the Tomales Bay Marine Station sign. I quelled my fear and tentatively walked down to photograph the beach. I saw an imposing government sign on the front door, took my first step on the sand and my phone rang. It was my good friend Melinda. She was driving the area looking for me.

She said "You're at the old Spenger house on the cove." I said "Yes, it does look like an old house. Oh! A park ranger has just arrived."

I hung up the phone and approached the ranger who had just gotten out of her vehicle (cop-speak for car) and, because of the heavy equipment on her belt, was standing in that unfortunate hands-akimbo fashion of all uniformed law enforcement.

I said "Hi," and was relieved to see Mary's car pull in. I tried to imagine the conversation Mary was imagining we were having. A few days earlier, she had been to a meeting between some reps of the local paper and the head of the Point Reyes National Seashore. The topic had been potential improvements in relations between locals and park service law enforcement. Luckily, I had met this ranger a few days before.

We talked through strained smiles, which was partially my fault because I really didn't know if I was allowed to be there or not, and after a few minutes, I said "There's my ride" and ran over and hopped in Mary's car. Mary asked "Was that a friendly conversation?"

Five-of-Swords

So, the five-of-swords indicates the release of mental trash. I broadly define trash as anything we create that undermines our well-being. If we are setting-out on a goal which results in greater well-being for ourselves or others, any thought process that hinders attainment of that goal is trash.

Everything we create in the world starts as a thought. If we are willing to be fearless in our introspection and identify and release thoughts which do not serve our purpose, we will be more effective in achieving our goal.