Big Sur is a mystical wonder that simply must be felt to be even remotely understood. I am not much of a religious person but, if I was, this is the place I would always come to when I wanted to go home and be with God. It’s the only place I’ve found on earth that feels like His living room.
I could spend until my last dying breath trying to put Big Sur into words but the truth is, it still wouldn’t be anything you could articulate in just words. There’s a grandeur here that is different than what you feel in the mountains. Maybe it’s the tumultuous ocean, the constant grinding of rock and water. The unforgiving weather that is always sculpting, creating, changing. The mystery of what’s out there in the ocean, just below the surface - A completely different world, right in front of us - Completely forgotten about and ignored.
All of these things just a simple reminder of how fickle and fragile our human lives truly are. And how we’ve always only been visitors here on this Earth, for such a small sliver of time.
And maybe it’s none of these physical things.
It’s so much more what you feel, in a place of such awe as Big Sur. A deep sense of calm, of peace, that is simply unattainable without this solitude. A sense of reverence that humbles any fear or doubt you could ever find yourself stuck in. An intuitive understanding that, even though we’re visitors here, we are also not here by mere accident. We all play a part in this constant, changing tumultuous landscape.
But make no mistake - Nothing more, nothing less. There is no need for power here - How could you ever seek it in a place like this? All it takes is one morning coffee spent watching the waves sculpt the rocky cliffs, as they’ve done for millions of years, to know you are just an observer. No money would do you any good here. No fame could possibly hold a candle. You can talk about your prestige to a tree here but I doubt you’ll get much feedback.
And I think that’s my favorite part of the culture of Big Sur.
Truly no one cares who you are. There is absolutely no one to impress. After all, what worldly things could they possibly be impressed by in a place like this?
And I know that, with the close proximity of San Francisco and Los Angeles, this is an interesting dilemma for a lot of people. People that have given their lives to build accolades and ego, a costume they put on every day in their cities. People that forgot that being out here IS the goal. That the goal has always been to remember who we are behind all of it. And it only takes one afternoon in Big Sur, if you’ll sit still enough, to know that in your soul.
If I had to guess, Big Sur holds this magic that I always yearn for because… This is where we truly come from. And where we’re meant to be. I remember years of waking up in cities, being stressed for reasons I couldn’t explain, rushing off into routines I didn’t sign up for. I played the games, built the castles, shook the hands and said the right words to feel accepted there. All along the way, I felt myself falling asleep each night, knowing I was giving up my soul to fit into a world I didn’t understand.
Out here, there is an energy freely given. Allowing you to draw from it to know who you truly are and allow yourself to write from that place.
In the cities, the energy is constantly being taken away from us. Pulled by the concrete, the noise, the traffic, the screens.
A constant reminder that we’re not meant to be in those places. They’re brand new. We have not evolved to be able to understand that level of predictability, of comfort, of routine. It’s not natural and we know it every night, just before we fall asleep. I think that’s why so many people I know watch TV to fall asleep. It drowns out their intuition and soul that keeps beckoning them to please listen.
That’s my guess on why I see so many tourists not being fully present here. Taking pictures and quickly moving along. I think that, if people truly allowed themselves to sit in silence in Big Sur, they wouldn’t need to go back to the churches. It only takes a minute in silence out here to know that God has never been inside of a building. They wouldn’t need to run back to a city to prove themselves. There’s nothing to prove - Just appreciate and experience.
But so much more that, you are actually perfect, just as you are. With all of your imperfections and insecurities. You’ve always been. In a place like this where there is no one to compare yourself to, other than nature itself, there is a deep sense of self. A clear knowing that your outer shell, the skin and the bones you carry around, have been perfectly chiseled by the grand experiences you’ve put yourself in.
Do you look at a fallen over tree here and judge it? Do you sit and critique how the ocean looks on a certain day? Of course not.
And that’s how the whole world sees us too… Only through the lens that they first see themselves.
When you’re here, you really do understand the value of time. And you realize you have SO much more of it than you ever thought you did. There’s not another email, another post to make. Not another phone call or text message to send. Nothing that steals your attention except for what you let it… For the world is so very small when you shut it all off. What would you do if you knew how much time you truly have? And how indulgent you can be with it? How much more would you create? How much more would you dream? How much more would you believe in yourself?
Out here, it makes so much more sense of what’s happening in the world. These politics and wars. Conquests of insecure people that desperately need to still prove themselves to others. Even so much sadder is that still feel they need to later in life. What a clear marker of a life unfulfilled and full of regret. It’s no different than the high school bullies that had to use their ego and braun to hurt others, just to make themselves feel better.
Even worse, as a society and culture, we support this chaos. We give it our attention and time. We allow it to divide us from the world around us. We allow it to impact us. To influence. To create a false narrative on the quality of the world around us. We form an identity around one of the sides and then build walls around us to reinforce it. We allow those walls to make it harder to listen to others, to understand how we can help others on the outside of them.
We allow those castles to tell us that everyone outside of them must be the enemy. And to withhold help from the world around us because we judge the intentions of a world that desperately needs us through this filter.
It just takes one, silent day out in Big Sur to remember what’s actually real. What’s actually true. That’s it’s okay that we feel small and vulnerable - We’ve always been. That’s probably why we’ve always lived in communities, supporting and sharing in the lives of others, to help buttress this fragility. But we’re losing that - In the comfort and distractions that create fear within us.
All it takes is one, silent day in Big Sur to remember that.
