Last year, as I sat with my 68 year old mother on the freshly cut lawn in front of Esalen’s main lodge looking out over the Pacific ocean’s morning misty haze, I remembered the first time I visited Esalen was when I was 8. That was about 35 years ago… but I don’t care to be more specific than that.
It’s strange how little has changed here. Now, as I share this precious moment, I am more grateful than ever to have been made aware of Esalen, to have been given the gifts so freely shared here. I have often said in jest, “I’m not sure why, but these are my People.” My mom was taking a workshop on greenbuilding lead by Amory Lovins. As a Friend of Esalen, I was enjoying a Personal Retreat. It was a perfect way to celebrate mother and daughter together.
I could go on and on about Esalen’s inexplicable gift to the world. They say the land itself is enchanted.
The hotspring water carries energy. I’ve never known if all that stuff is hokey pokey…. but in the end, who cares? To experience the land, the people, the food, the thought provoking evolution of words expressed here…. a bit of hokey pokey is obviously not such a bad thing.
A few weeks ago, I was introduced to Steve and Pam, the leaders of an upcoming workshop held this May at Esalen.
Workshop leaders are pretty cool people! Esalen doesn’t just let anyone lead a workshop on its property. Steve and Pam share this privilege with some of our greatest minds of today. So, it has been such a treat to get an inside ear to the planning process of what goes into leading a workshop the weeks prior to the weekend itself.
Probably what I’ve been most struck by is the confidence they share about who will attend. Pam believes strongly that the room will organically be filled with exactly the right people. “Those who need to be there, will be there.” It reminds me of that beautiful film Field of Dreams. “Build it and they shall come.”
As for me, a friend writing this blog post, I am excited to see the magic unfold, and I can already feel something brewing. Who will be there? What will reveal itself during the weekend? Will I learn something important that I don’t yet know about myself? To participate in any aspect of Esalen is to accept some very cool and inevitable outcome. Blogs make for great journal entries, so this is one of many such entries to come, as May 3rd approaches.