Sunday, August 24, 2008

Simply Wild

Simply Wild at Julia Pfeiffer-Burns State Park
For more photos of the group click here: Simply Wild

Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this:
the fires and the black river of loss
whose other side is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.

To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:

To love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones
knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

from part of Mary Oliver's "In Black Water Woods"
How wonder to be back in the wilds of Big Sur with a group... and in places that did not burn. How deeply I appreciated the aliveness of these mountains and sea, and of our time together. Thanks to each one of you for a wonderful weekend!
Wildly,
Steven

P.S. I read the Mary Oliver Poems, The Summer Day, In Blackwater Woods, and Sleeping in the Forest. All of these poem can be found in her book New and Selected Works: Volume One which won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

2 comments:

Nicolas said...

Steven,
What a great weekend adventure!!! Thank you so much for showing us the other Esalen....you opened my heart to this land and filled my mind with the most esquisite wonders.
I am now back in NYC, very different!! I am waiting for the Big Sur to call me again.
By for now!!

Nicolas

Steven Harper said...

Nicolas,
You are so welcome. I so appreciate how you fully involved yourself in your time at Esalen. I look forward to when our paths cross again.
Steven