1000 miles

Sometimes you need to go a 1000 miles - or 3000 - to get exactly where you were before you started. For me, it was a trip across the country. I felt different already when I got on the plane to San Francisco. Like a chapter had just ended and there was a brief pause before the next one started.

It shouldn't happen but it did: can blame it on winter, all the snow, lack of sunlight, post-holiday blues, selfish people, heartbreak. All outside of my control, still they got me down. It was difficult to see the positives and think optimistically, I wasn't feeling like myself. I gave myself a month. That month was up last Saturday. Same day that I got on that flight.

The pause was a 3-day conference near Monterey, CA. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. The West Coast is different. The colors are different: the blue of the ocean is deeper, the greens of trees make them seem more alive, everything is brighter, more colorful. Sunshine in January. Dogs playing in the sand, surfers getting ready for an early morning ride, running along the beach at sunrise, driving along the coast at sunset - the sun disappearing beyond the horizon over the Pacific - bonfire on the beach late at night in the dark, only guided by the light of the flames: something very primal about it.

I feel renewed and also like my old self. There will always be winters - unless I move to Monterey - and there will always be selfish people and ones who break my heart. While no man is an island - as someone very wise had once said - it shouldn't be so easy to have the delicate balance of emotional well being tipped over. Well, every once in a while, I suppose even the strongest can be affected.

In any case, a new chapter begins NOW.

And here are some pictures from my brief pause:

Asilomar