My place is where I grew up, Monterey, California, but more specifically Pacific Grove. While I was growing up in this bubble of paradise everywhere else, to me, existed in relation to it. My center of the universe. I can't imagine a safer place to be, even as I moved back when I was 22 I never locked my car. Monterey and Carmel reminded me of what Japan's landscape might be like, with looming cyprus's and jagged cliffs surrounding the pacific. The fog, much like San Francisco would roll in and you could see the moisture in the air. It felt like a cleanse to my lungs.
Big Sur which was just a short jaunt down the highway in my head was where Peter Pan and his lost boys lived. Redwoods, Canyons and the most beautiful white sand beaches with turquoise water and kelp forest peeking above the surface. I used to also think there was magic in the ocean because it sparkled. I still think there is. I usually return every year to sit on the beach and breathe. I could spend hours watching the surf and never say a word. For me this is my childhood and innocence.
Aileen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the great description. I have been to Carmel a couple times--we have a long lost cousin twice removed who lives in a little funky cabin up in the hills above town, the kind of place leftover from the 1960's. Your description of the fog, the cliffs, the kelp forests bring it alive. I can imagine how wonderful it would be for a child to grow up here. It does seem that magic is more at the surface in some places on the earth and that this must be one of those places.