Big Sur, California

I recently returned from a Craniosacral 2 training at Esalen in Big Sur, California. It was heartbreakingly beautiful, both the training and setting. Morning light on the ocean, the view during breakfast, huge gardens, the walk down the path to the hot springs. I loved being in the hot springs at night, watching ocean waves crash under the light of the full moon.

I had a choice for this training. I could take it in Big Sur in October, or Albany, New York in February. Not a difficult choice, but I was also drawn to Esalen because I remembered Gabrielle Roth, one of my most influential teachers, had lived and worked there. She started as a dancer in San Francisco and, after an injury, was told she would never dance again. She fell into a depression, moved to Esalen to work as a massage therapist, and it was there that she discovered it was dancing that would ultimately heal her. It was where she perceived the 5 Rhythms of movement that she would later write about and teach all over the world.  

She was rock and roll and spiritual at once and it wasn't a contradiction for her like it wasn't a contradiction for me. I just hadn't met others like that. It was from her that I first learned about the power of the body's wisdom, how transformative movement could be, and how there is so much more going on than what we can see.

When she spoke about Big Sur, all those years ago, it always seemed so far away to me. Some parts of the world are like that, they feel impossibly far when you first hear about them. Yet here I was, here.