While I never tried Kopi Luwak, which was expensively available in Malaysia, the cup of brown beans here in America tastes pretty much the same as any other I’ve tried on my travels. I say this as I sit in Petaluma’s Aqus Cafe, with a cup of Organic Blue Dragon (wherever is that from) at arms length. Maybe it’s just my insensitive tastebuds. Whatever. It’s another day on my journey, another cup of coffee paid for with another dollar. Well, $2.50 to be precise.
I’ve been in Northern California two months, with almost half that time spent meditating in silence and serving at the Vipassana Meditation Centre three hours north of San Francisco. The rest of the time I’ve been hanging around Sonoma County, initially staying with my old school friend from Cork, Kevin Richardson and his family in the historical town of Petaluma (an hour north of SF). On returning from retreat, thanks to Kevin, I’ve been house sitting for near neighbours Jerry & Marlene who’ve gone fishing in Alaska for three months, leaving me look after their cosy 3 bed. There’s a delightful plant filled back garden patio where I usually have breakfast to the gentle tumble of water from a corner fountain. My job is to cut the grass, water the cactii, top up the hummingbirds sugary water and start the car once a week. It’s been challenging! But not half as challenging as trying to shoot (camera, not gun) a family of hummingbirds as they swoop in and out for water. They are far too fast for me. Might have to spike their drinks with something to slow them down, marijuana perhaps. Incidentally, pot might soon be legal here after Colorado generated millions in tax revenue from the weed, but that’s another story.
Aqus (pronounced ackwuss) is a nice spot to sit and write. It’s got a slightly warehousey feel with simple, functional furnishings, local artists decorating the walls and middle of the road American music filtering through. A nice lunch menu of salads and sandwiches, and unusually, plenty on offer for a vegetarian. Not that I am one, but I have the spinach, walnut and blue cheese salad.
I finally made it for one of my Godsons big days – Jack’s (Kevin’s eldest son) high school graduation. This young man turned out very well, getting great grades and leading the football team from quarter-back. He starts college in Oregon next month. Good luck Jack!
The Inside Job
The meditation retreats were a wonderful experience giving a much needed boost to my practice. I served one and sat the other. Serving from 5.30am to 10pm was a long day, punctuated by three 1 hour meditation sessions. Myself and seven others fed, watered and cleaned up after 85 people. It wasn’t as hard as I imagined when I first raised my hand to be cook! There’s nothing quite as rewarding as serving others. Superfood for the soul. After three days rest I was straight into my own retreat with 10 hours meditation each day from 4.30am to 9pm.
The Vipassana technique is an embodied practice, much like yoga, where you fine tune your attention inside. It teaches us to recognise that every sensation, whether pleasant or unpleasant, never lasts, it is always arising and passing away, always changing. The objective is to remain equanimous to whatever arises, knowing that it will shortly pass. Developing an equanimous mind is the key to being able to gain greater insight into our underlying awareness of who or perhaps what we really are (answer: Stardust!). It also helps us to be less reactionary in our day to day lives, knowing that within each of us lies the same feelings of fear, anger, love, joy etc. Have a mind that’s open to everything, yet attached to nothing. A universal heart centred truth. Simple really. OK, lesson over.
I’ve found another wonderful Ashtanga yoga teacher about a half hour north in the pretty town of Sebastopol. Certified teacher Johnny Smith has been keeping tabs on me, pushing me along nicely with his hands on and caring approach. There’s a very nice community of yogis here too – artists, wine growers and yoga teachers all fully committed and rocking it out each morning, but no bankers as far as I can see. Should all bankers practice yoga? Another time.
I also recently got to see and hear the wonderful mindfulness and vipassana meditation teacher Jack Kornfield at the Spirit Rock meditation and retreat centre. Author of bestselling book A Path with Heart, he spoke beautifully for almost two hours, with poet Alison Luterman reciting some of her work in an easy, effortless and enlightening two step.
Aqus is run by an Irishman named John Crowley, a gregarious man who, when I met him about a month ago, wanted to know what musical instrument I could play, presumably so he could rope me into one of his weekly gigs. His face plunged a little when I revealed that my musical talents didn’t even stretch to a set of spoons. There are times I wonder am I really Irish, this was one of them.
A Love Affair with the Motor Car
Soon after I got here I stumbled upon a classic car rally passing through town. The Peggy Sue All American Cruise (the film When Peggy Sue Got Married was shot in Petaluma and nearby Santa Rosa) was underway with a parade the following evening in balmy downtown Santa Rosa. I dragged Kevin along to see evocative scenes of rockers, bobby socked ladies and teddy boys lining the streets, but for me, as always, the cars were the stars! Not a fan of customized hot rods, of which there were many, I preferred the stunning Thunderbirds, Corvettes, Mustangs and Cobras.
European classics proliferate too with many well kept models such as the VW Beetle, Triumph TR4, and Mercedes SL. It’s easy to understand America’s love affair with the motorcar what with everything so far apart, and little in the way of public transport, it’s essential to have your own wheels to navigate California’s almost 20,000 miles of State Highway. But it’s not only getting around the sprawling towns and cities. Getting out into the vast countryside is a national pursuit. The US is incredibly well served by more than 4 million miles of highways that will take you to innumerable natural amenities, magnificent national parks, forests and coastal beaches….
…..and lo another motorbike had to be acquired….
There are now 12 wheels on three continents in the TB global garage! Picked up another modern classic, a Triumph Bonneville T100 (complete with saddle bags wouldn’t you know). Got a great deal from the very helpful David Morton at AS Powersports, who lived up to his title of ‘Director for Adventure’, by kindly showing me some interesting routes to explore. Nice guy.
Nor Cal, almost as nice as Wes Cor!
The Bonnevilles super smooth 865cc parallel twin engine has been propelling me about the very pretty Sonoma County the past couple of weeks, helping me get some nice photos.
It’s a beautiful countryside, with rolling brown hills, valley vineyards, and many large dairy farms (producing super cheeses). It also has some beautiful redwood forests and the stunning Pacific Coast Highway (No 1) winds its way along it’s coast. I’ve been up and down stretches of it from Jenner to Stinson Beach, stopping off at Bodega Bay on one occasion to look for Hitchcock’s angry birds…
Took a run down to Santa Cruz last weekend with my cousin, and fellow biker, Dan, stopping off at the famous Alice’s Restaurant (named after the counter culture anti-war song of the late ’60’s). Heading south out of San Francisco we took the oft foggy, and aforementioned coastal Highway 1 to Half Moon Bay (home to the Mavericks big wave surfers), drifting inland along the sunnier sweeps of 84 through La Honda and up to the “you can get anything you want” restaurant to sample a Norton burger. The sweeping Skyline Boulevard in the Santa Cruz mountains would lift any spirit, keeping the rider fully focussed and vividly present on his seat (of prayer). By the time I got home 280 miles had been covered, re-acquainting me intimately with the term saddle sore. More runs in the pipeline, hopefully I’ll make it to Yosemite, and maybe further, who knows…safely too I hope.
A variety of interesting characters come and go at the cafe. As I write a group of four older ladies knit while they chat, a recent urology test seems to be the current topic. Three or four others, like me, tap on their Apple Macs. A couple of bookish types read, as they would, and another couple chat. I’m one of fifteen in the cafe, perhaps two younger than me, a sneak preview of life in a retirement home perhaps. Appropriately, John Lennon’s “Watching the Wheels” drifts to my ear…
As I move from country to country I seem to be traveling two journeys at once, the inner self reflective one of yoga and meditation practice, and a fascinating external social and economic voyage. In yoga we work with internal energies, off the mat we deal with external energy (matter and relationship/money and people). Here in the home of modern day capitalism, it’s impossible to avoid consumer culture. Great store is placed on working hard and earning money engendering incessant doing, rewarding the creation, sale and consumption of stuff while largely forgetting our inherent natural state of being. Here in California, yoga is more mainstream with many options, sometimes more commercially motivated, but again, probably a post for another day.
Tomorrow, after yoga practice, I hope to go for a coastal ride on the Bonneville, take a few pictures and see what happens…and maybe pick up some hash for the hummingbirds!
A World of Wanders 