California–Letting The Dream Go

I remember my second visit to California, I was 18 years old and loving this place!  Near the end of my trip, I read some graffiti on a freeway overpass, “Tourists GO HOME”!  I remember feeling really bad when I read it, almost like I had been personally attacked.

I couldn’t understand how someone would want me to go home.  I thought to myself, “gosh if I lived here, I would want to meet all the people that came from all over the world to visit”.  That’s just how I am, I love finding out about people.

I’m still the same way all these years later, if I meet somebody new I want to know all about them.  I’ve lived in this state for 20 years now and I feel as if I was born here.  I wasn’t born here, but I did live here when I was a baby and I feel as if California is in my bones.  I love this place, it is so magnificent!

Where else can you go to the beach then take a 2 to 5 hour drive and be in the mountains with snow?  Everywhere I go here, I feel at home.

California!  I’ve been up and down the coast and everywhere I go is total bliss.  It really is no wonder that people want to visit here, let alone move here.  If you knew what we had to endure in Michigan, you would have a heart and be okay with us being here.  While it is true, there are lots of people and cars, how can you blame them all?  This a a gorgeous place!

I remember one of the women at the gym complaining about all the cars flooding from the valley to go to the beach.  She said, “vals, go home, we don’t want you here”.  It’s funny, I thought to myself, she moved here from Ontario Canada–who is she to talk?  Vals are the people who live in the San Fernando Valley.  It is a good 15-25 degrees hotter than on the beach.  Gosh, they deserve to enjoy the beach.  I can see it from both sides, though.  When I spend most of my time up and down the coast because I work in Malibu and live in Brentwood, there can be a huge amount of traffic in the summer months because of everyone flooding to the beach.  It’s all good though, we’re just enjoying where we get to live and play!

I enjoy where I live and play every day.  Today, as I drove the stretch of PCH that takes me to my long time place of work, The Malibu Gym, I marveled at the beauty of Point Dume’ in the distance.  Honestly, I don’t think there has been one day in the 20 years I’ve been driving that coast that I haven’t been in awe of the sight of it when I see it.  I do wonder, how is it possible to love a place so much?

The month of June, 2011 marked 20 years of living in California.  From the age of 10, I spent 20 years dreaming of living in California.  Some might say it became everything I focused upon.  The DJ in the college cafeteria only had to see me and know that it was time to play my song, “California Dreamin”.  Class after class of teaching, I always ended in the relaxed visualizing mode and saw myself here, happy and vibrant!  Then, after years of postponing my move either because of school or a job or a boyfriend,  I made it happen.  I had dreamed and visualized and listened and dreamed some more and then I moved to California.  I had no car, no job, no place to live–I just had to be here once and for all.

So many dreams came true for me.  I live the lifestyle I lived when I lived in Michigan.  I lived it in my own little world there because my environment didn’t really support it.  Today, I am surrounded by health food stores, healthy restaurants,  nature abounding everywhere I turn, near perfect weather, people I adore and so much more!

I love the life I’ve created.  I ride my bike, I hike the trails, practice yoga at my choice of a plethora of studios.  I live in a neighborhood that simply must be one of the prettiest in the country.  Abundance surrounds me in every direction I turn.  I am worthy of it all because I brought it to life with my visions and my strong desire.

Now, after 20 years of fully embracing and loving this place, I had the thought of letting it go.  Let it go and move onto something different.  I am open to that.  Montana seems to be pulsing in my radar these days.  Colorado is another place calling to me although the thought of the Winter months don’t really appeal to me.   Hawaii could work for me.  Or, I could stay here and just keep living it in the blissful fashion I’ve carved out for myself.

The feeling I had, though, when I let go of the need to be here and the need to stay here was so freeing.   By letting go, we simply surrender to either something better or keeping that which we have.  It was obvious I had been clinging to being here.  I could feel such a total sense of freedom when I just let go.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? ”I am open to everything and attached to nothing”.  That sounds like a good plan.  I heard Dr. Wayne Dyer say it many years ago and until you experience it in one area of life, you won’t really know how good it feels.  I am feeling this way in several areas of life and it feels like a dream–as  good as the California dream I had all those years ago!

Caged Animals

I went to see the movie, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.  It was a really good movie and I noticed something that we are all subject to–limited access to nature.  Whenever we enclose ourselves with limitations, it creates a bit of frustration and sometimes rage!  No question about it, even though humans are not apes, we still need to run and jump and move our bodies out in nature.

There were a couple of scenes where Caesar was let off his leash in the Redwood forest.  Caesar was a baby ape raised indoors.  The shot of his face as he looked up, how his eyes brightened, was magical.  I feel similar when I’m out on my favorite trails.  We have nature all around us but most people don’t utilize it and surrender to it.  We know it’s there but we have deprived ourselves for so long that we don’t know or remember what we’re missing.

When we go too long without our fix, we become pent up and filled with anger and rage and resentment and it’s no wonder we take it out on others around us.  Whether we are in our cars venting about the other drivers, or out in public areas dealing with strangers, people have gotten downright nasty and uncivilized at times.

My prescription is to allow ourselves back out into the wild.  Nature heals all our ailments if we just trust it to work its magic.  I’m watching a lizard on my porch right now.  To each stroke of the keyboard, he is reacting with his balance and body poised and ready to run away or toward.  As the typing continues, he relaxes into the noise knowing there is no threat.  He is in tune with his perceptions and feelings without thinking, just a natural knowing.

Imagine if we could tap into that power?  We have it here in front of us and most of us pass it by.  I encourage anyone reading this to get out the door,  into the day,  and enjoy your body moving through space.  Let go, breath, and celebrate life outside our domesticated domain.

If you have dogs, you know how excited they get when you take them out for a walk.  Excited, I mean REALLY excited–and to think–they are just going on a little walk in the developed neighborhood!  It’s good to get outside, even if it is your neighborhood street.  Do something amazing for your physiology today, go take a walk.

You won’t really feel everything that is going on physiologically inside your body, but trust me, there is a myriad of reactions taking place that would blow your mind if you could wrap it around them.  You are an amazing machine and your body thrives on activity.  Use your body, revel in it and know that it is such a phenomenal piece of creation!

Puma Power

We call me Nature Girl Tara for many reasons and today’s event was one of them.  I was out hiking and as I began the trail, a young woman approached me coming the other way and said she had just seen a Mountain Lion!

I eased her fear a bit and said that if she wanted to join me on the hike, she could hike with me and I would protect her.  She had turned around after seeing the Mountain Lion in her first 5 minutes on the trail.

I have come face to face with a Mountain Lion before (I was on my mountain bike) and the Puma was afraid but not too afraid.  She was ahead of me on the trail and ran into the bushes.  As I approached that spot I had marked with my eyes in the bushes, I looked in and her big green eyes were peering out at me.  As we made eye contact, she shrunk back a bit.  I began talking to her… “I see you.  I’m not afraid of you.  You’re fine.”

The fact is, I wasn’t afraid.  I was absolutely thrilled to be in the presence of such a wild animal.  So, as Sam and I made our way toward our destination 2.5 miles ahead, I explained what you should do if you come upon a mountain lion–it isn’t what I did in my face to face encounter but this is what YOU should do.

The first rule is, DON’T RUN!  They are kind of like men, they love the chase.  If you run, they chase–that’s just their instinct.  The second rule is, talk loud and sound mean and stand as tall as you can possibly stand.  They are afraid of you if you carry yourself with a confidence and a knowing that All is Well.

In Sam’s case, the Puma ran first, at which point Sam ran the other way.  Luckily, the Puma was scared first.  As we entered the woods, it felt like we were on the Avatar set itself.  Everything was lush and green with vines and ivy all around.

Even though I felt like being calm and quiet because of the serene environment, I was TALKING VERY LOUD for the sake of the potential Puma looming in the bushes!  It was necessary to put Sam and I at ease and make sure that I followed my own advice.

The hike turned into one of the most magical days for both of us.   We talked about everything…  moving to L A, love,  law of attraction, life’s purpose, goals, dreams, relationships.

I was happy to have her company because I am a Trail Guide by nature and I love to interact with the people I hike with.  I had a hike scheduled that day but the people flaked.   I had intended on driving all the way to Malibu, but something in me said, “turn” as I approached Will Rogers Historic State Park off Sunset Blvd.  And so, I turned!

Perhaps, no not perhaps, I’m sure I was supposed to meet Sam today.  We were able to enhance each other in various ways and it made for a measurable, magical morning.  I am grateful.  I’ve heard it said at The Agape International Spiritual Center, “I am an answered prayer”.

Perhaps I was the answered prayer for Sam today, otherwise, she would have abandoned the hike within the first 5 minutes.  Sam was there for me so that I could share my beloved trails with somebody who had a strong desire to be there.

The Mountain Lion was there to bring Sam a message.  As Ted Andrews, the author of  “Animal Speak” says in his book,  when we are out in the wild,  the animals we encounter are there to bring us a message… “when Cougar (Puma/Mountain Lion) shows up as a totem for you, it is a message to come into your own power.  People may not like your asserting and may want to keep you in the category they have always kept you in.   The Cougar teaches you how to take charge of your life and your circumstances most effectively.

So many lessons are out on the trails of our lives, we just have to be willing. As Dr. Wayne Dyer says:

“Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing.”

So many magical moments on that 3 hour hike…  Synchronicity is the one word I will use to describe it.  I will leave it at that and urge you out into the wild.  You never know what, or who,  you’ll encounter out there, but you have to be willing to get yourself out in it and be open to learn the lessons as they appear!

See For Myself!

I went out on a spectacular Saturday morning mountain bike ride.  I was riding through the canyon, when someone going the other way said, “the trail is closed ahead”.  “Oh”, I said surprised.  I continued on about 10 more minutes when a man who works for the gas company stopped me and said the trail is closed ahead.  I said, “yeah, I heard but I want to see for myself.”

More riders rode past me telling me about the closure…”yeah, yeah” I said.  They were just being nice and trying to clue me in so I wouldn’t get there and be upset, but I just wanted to see it for myself.   I like to see things for myself and not just take everybody’s word for it.

That sounds like a smart philosophy, don’t you think?  If we all listened to everybody else telling us when to turn around and when to stop, we’d be living a life with no power at all and probably never even “go for” anything.

I rode the trail to the closure where the security guard said that would be the end of the ride.  I assured him that I knew all about it but I wanted to see it for myself.  He laughed and agreed that it made sense to him.

The funny thing is, I got a good 30 minutes more of a ride in after the first person told me about the closure.  Yes, I could have chosen to turn around and ride another trail nearby so that I could do a loop, but somehow I just wanted to get the full story for myself.  The security guard explained that the trail would be closed for about 2 more months.  Well, at least I know now, FOR MYSELF!  Instead of listening to the hearsay of everyone else, I got the firsthand story with my own ears.

That has been and will continue to be my way of life.  If someone tells me a movie sucks or a restaurant is awful, let me be the judge.  If a doctor tells someone with a serious injury, “don’t even bother trying to walk again”, do you think they should listen?

We are all different and we all get to choose.  Isn’t that the best news…we get to choose and we don’t have to take anyone’s word or opinion other than our own.

Today turned into a really gorgeous ride–even though it was cut short–there was something about it that was perfect.  I’ve never seen so many colorful moths and butterflys, it was a beautiful spring day and I got to decide for myself to see the end of the trail with my own eyes.

One more thing…you know the street signs that say “Not a Through Street”?  They aren’t always telling the truth.  You know how I know, I ride to the end and see for myself that there is a way through–they just don’t want you to know about it.  Sure, most of the time they tell the truth, but not always.  Ya just gotta go through it to get to it…and see for yourself!