A ticket to heaven, that’s what the Esalen Institute was!  How else can it be described?  There were gardens and hot springs and butterflies in migration.  There were souls walking the Earth whom I felt as though I’ve “met them before” but this was our first meeting.  This is a place where great leaders have come and still come to give workshops on anything from personal growth, painting, Gestalt Theory, environmental friendly living, cooking and yep…even songwriting!  I’d highly recommend a journey to Big Sur and a resesrvation to embark on the most clean organic mingeling, eating, sleeping, bathing you’ll ever do in your life.  It’s right up there with Hawaii for me.  Seriously!   Think about it, access to hot tubs above the cliffs right off the ocean 24/7.  You can not only watch the Sun come up you can watch the Moon go down!

I looked out into the Ocean and saw pods of dolphins making there way across the waves.  The pounding of the water on the rocks pushed out all that my brain was trying to obsess over (including ending a sentence with a preposition *wink*!)   Like a wash rag being rung out, I don’t think I had any idea of the energy it took to deliver over 100 shows this summer.  Pouring our souls and love into each note…it’s not “work” don’t get me wrong, but it IS something reaching deep inside yourself and “disrobing” time and time again.  Unwrapping your own vulnerabilities in song and delivering those “gifts” and hoping people find a sense of peace  instead of noise.

The open hearted friends that we met there blew my mind.  I’m such an emotional sap ha!  Seriously, I cry at Kleenex commercials! (But I laugh loud at myself when I do too!)  I met some of the most amazing open hearted men there (women too, but the men were impressive as I don’t see men so open to their emotional side) I was relieved and over joyed to see this.  Unfortunately men are so trained to “keep it all in” and regard showing emotion as a sign of being weak (not all but many) and this is a misfortune.  Tears of truth need to be expressed sometimes, and there is no better way than to just let them fall.  So…they fell a lot.  Hell, we could have had our own Kleenex commercial right there in our workshop.  I think I got a whole years worth of tears on the floor ha ha!  It was very emptying and fulfilling at the same time.

I was reminded by my sister’s and brother’s of song just how important it is to play music and sing from your heart.  Not that I don’t know this, or have to be constantly reminded or validated that what we do is important in this world of art. But it can seem easy to loose sight of this in the midst of the hustle and bustle (as in most professions).  Oh if I could count up the number of people that say, “this is ALL you do?” ha!  I’d be a lot richer monetarily than I am now (big belly laugh).  That can grate on the “normalcy scale” that compels a lot of us to work ourselves right into the grave.

Oh I feel that I am ever so rich, regardless of the lack of funds in the bank this matters not.  What matters is the beautiful smiles I see on peoples faces at the shows.  What matters is how good it feels to be amongst friends.  What matters is the good feelings the very act of singing and playing has on the body, mind and spirit.  I get to reflect and be reflected upon and I’m ever so grateful for the whole process.  That’s all we (you and me)  are really here doing…reflecting to each other.  You see me, I see you, I see me in you, you see you in me etc. etc.  Life truly is beautiful from that perspective but the “grinding” is all part of the perfect plan to get the “polish” out of life.

So…if you wanna know where heaven is, go check out Esalen…or drop into your own bath, shut your eyes and dream a little dream!  Thanks for reading and thanks for joining us in this journey of music and life.