Mountains and Waves: Esalen 2009

Mountains and Waves... on the edge

For more photos: Mountains and Waves Or as a Slide Show

What words can come close to touching upon what we touched. I find myself in awe of the courage to step out of the known and into the mystery of the unexplored. I will be integrating the experience of the week for weeks to come.

"Such richness flowing
through the branches of summer and into

the body, carried inward on the five
rivers! Disorder and astonishment

rattle your thoughts and your heart
cries for rest but don’t

succumb, there’s nothing
so sensible as sensual inundation. Joy

is a taste before
it’s anything else, and the body

can lounge for hours devouring
the important moments. Listen,

the only way
to tempt happiness into your mind is by taking it

into our body first, like small
wild plums."

Mary Oliver “The Plum Trees” American Primitive

With Hearfelt Gratitude...
Steven

P.S. Wishing us well in planting and tending of the essential seeds we are growing in our lives... may they benefit all our relations.

Fathers and Sons: Celebrating Father's Day in the Tradition of the Old Ways at Esalen 2009

Fathers and Sons on Father's Day 2009

It is a wise child that knows his own father.
-Homer
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
-William Shakespeare

I have led many weekend workshops in my years at Esalen. This coming together of fathers and sons was among the most potent of them all and much more profound than I had expected. I continue to be moved by our collective and family time together. I am deeply grateful for this gathering of fathers and sons and our time spent on the path in the wilds.

For more photos of our group: Fathers & Sons Or as a Slide Show

With Love,
Steven (and for Kes, Kai, and Kenneth)