La Ventana al Alma

The hermitage I live at in Big Sur butts up against the Ventana Wilderness, which is part of the Los Padres National Forest. “Ventana” is Spanish for “window”.

The Double Cone is a prominent twin mountain top located in the northern part of the Ventana Wilderness. There is a gap between the peaks that forms a window or passage of sorts. The native Esselen tribes believed the souls of the dead passed between those two granite peaks into the next realm.

La ventana al alma — “the window to the soul” — is how I’d describe Big Sur. Peering into her misty mornings or deep, star-filled nights is like peering into your own heartbeat. Your own soul.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

There are rhythms here that you might miss anywhere else. Breathe in, the sun rises — a new day for humans, birds, flowers. Breathe out, the moon climbs into the sky — a new day for bats, cougars, owls.

If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then Big Sur has many eyes. And when you stare into the eyes of Big Sur, she also stares back into you. You look into each other’s souls, as lovers do, and glimpse truths you could not otherwise see.

When I walk through a shopping mall or into a crowded bar, I can feel alone, even though surrounded by people. But when I walk in Big Sur, I am never alone, even though I might see no other human being.

Big Sur is a place full of beings, most of them non-human. She notices each of us; follows each of us with her eyes. And when our eyes meet, we see deep into each other.

Imagine if all things, including you and I, were breathed into existence by our Creator. By Her breath, washing across the sky, all living things came into existence.

I once asked a monk here whether or not he thought this were true. He replied “It may be!”. I then wondered out loud whether this life was a dream…that nothing was real, and that everything had already happened — our birth, our death, and all things in-between. He commented “Does it matter? Stay in this moment, dream or not.”

There are many moments here. And no distractions to veil them. Luna and her partners dance across the sky, the ocean cloaks herself in fog, owls call to each other from darkness, flowers open and close to the sun, I stand dwarfed by mountains and endless horizons. I am humbled.

~ Walt Whitman

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