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Haley Flies Through the Mountaintops

July 20, 2011 Krista Moore No comments

1400 miles. 6 days. Up the Pacific Coast and down the interior of Southern CA. What does it matter where we stayed and what we did? This isn’t a travel blog. It’s a “course” in miracles. What did I learn? Let me attempt to recreate.

Every time we got on the road I had an “anticipation”. A deliberate expectation that formed in my mind unconsciously, but undeniably formed like a phantom waiting for me at the next gate. When we stopped to search, we inevitably found a new way. Our “radar” was on, our GPS loaded. We had a destination, after all. But the in between was unsettling at times. I had to let go.

The long stretch of road, the flowering weeds, the smell of wheatgrass and mountain air. There was a wide openness out there. Something that couldn’t be seen or controlled. The road may wind one way, but our minds go another. We “think” we know where we’re going, but we never do.

Sometimes I would drowse. Sometimes I would take the wind in my hair. Sometimes I would eat and fidget in my chair, sometimes I would take the driver’s seat…

[slideshow]

Video of my mountaintop drive coming soon…

We were coming back to the coast after a long trip up and through San Fransisco. We had barely stopped for a rest. We found this little way back unexpectedly, not the highway, but the bi-way through the mountaintops. The most scenic route on the map. Steve asked if I wanted to drive. I hesitated. Something in me knew. When I took the wheel, my lazy, numb-brained “along for the ride” self suddenly shifted into full awareness, out of the dream and into the bright landscape of trees, dust, and curves. I felt every bend, my eyes fully fixed on the road. My breathing controlled and smooth, my mind entranced with what I could do, elated at my sudden rush of power, confident in my handling at the wheel, amused by my “passenger” squirming a little in his seat, amazed at my ability and nerve. This excited me further.

I had changed from nervous passenger glowering over mountaintops, to fully-alive, fiery Mountain Woman toppling the great unknown.

Slow cars pulled over. I was riding with the Harleys.

Adventure was in. Fear was out. All hats were off!

The mountain which had previously threatened me now held me perfectly.

Haley was flying through the mountaintops*.

* See Haley Sings to the Mountaintops and Special Edition: Haley’s Comet Anniversary & Me .

How did I assimilate this experience into the rest of my trip? Every moment was a new moment to let go. Let go of expectations. Of what hotel to stay in. Or what tomorrow will bring. Let go of “I want it this way” or “I can’t do that”. Let go. Every day is a day to take the driver’s seat. That doesn’t mean you boss the world around or know exactly what to do. But somehow, in the moment, as the road presents itself, and the general destination looms over the mountaintops, you know what to do.

Just drive.

P.S. The last morning as I was lying in bed thinking about what I still wanted to do, I roused my partner and ordered him to the car. “I want to swim in the ocean.” I said powerfully. He listened. We drove in our bathing suits and parked on Venice Beach, a few miles away from our quiet sanctuary in Marina Del Rey. The water was too quiet for me today. I needed the ocean to stir my appetite. We bounded into the waves. It was cold. I didn’t care. It was 8:30AM and the only other person was a surfer in full body suit. Our skin was naked against the salty air. I wasn’t satisfied until I soaked my hair. Crazy gangly sea-things washed up against my leg and I shivered and jumped. I went farther, dipped down, then up and away! riding the last wave…

How can I push the envelope this minute? What can I do differently? What will scare me a little and make me wake up? That is how to stay ALIVE.

Thank you California, and Marina Del Rey. Highway 33, 105 and Tulare. Marilyn Monroe in Santa Maria, and the elephant seals in Morro Bay. There is so much more to say. Maybe I’ll get around to it, maybe someday.

In the meantime, I’ll drive my way.

P.S. Here’s the video of my mountaintop drive, for those of you who aren’t too squeamish! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvKxA7Ifo44. Enjoy!

“Who Knows, Dos, Tres, Quatro…!”

July 17, 2011 Krista Moore No comments

Honest to God, folks, there is NO WAY I can keep up with this trip. I think it is like what Hemingwaysaid: you can only write about Paris when you are in New York, and you can only write about New York when you are in Paris, or something like that. So, while I am in California, I am too busy LIVING IT!

But I will not complain. I will endeavour to catch up with myself, which is absolutely impossible, because I am so ALIVE with it right now. (And I confess, I did have one really good cucumber and Tabasco martini served by the incredible Karen Seeley….)

our host Karen Seeley at the Santa Maria Inn

Here is an in-the-moment rendition of my roadtrip today, taken from my notebook:

Went to Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Garden, at the advice of Claudia who I will tell you about in a separate blog because she deserves it . We were coming from just above San Diego travelling North, hoping to hit just above LA. In our handy-dandy TomTom GPS, I entered our goal: Ventura, CA. Street: Anywhere….

On the way…

steve the morning of

Marine corps practices in the desert, rescue helicopter, hovering above ground the size of a tank. Several tanks line the ground against the brown dirt, smokey air hanging over clouds.

Mexican music popping, tuba players sounding through the air…

5 N to LA N

Close eyes and feel and smell…

cool still

smokey dusty

mexican fire

& pigs

like cuba

tank trucks going by

yellow

forearms cool

hair whipping behind

my wrap against

the back of my head

rumbling under the car wheels

“Spanish polka!” steve says

slapping his thigh

rolling by…

hazy sage green

ocean hanging

under cloud.

a hawk finding

prey & freed soar

up ahead.

“yo amigo”

San Diego goodbye, though we never met

met your blood (Claudia)

and grew warmer.

“Adios”, he said.

“Hasta luego!” I called back.

“Vaya con Dios” she said.

I will. Thank You God.

I Am.

Where to stop?

1. Ventura? Coastal. Lots of swanky shops. Gorgeous. Nah, let’s keep going.

2. Monecito? hills, hidden little spanish villas in lushly lined laneways.. Nah, we need a wireless connection. Nearest? McDonald’s.

3. Santa Barbara! Aha! a bit rougher than New Orlean’s. lush but run down, busy coastal waterfront, hidden dusty alleyways, with junkyards. No thanks. What?? No McDonald’s?? Outta here.

4. Funny little Goleta. Maybe… no…. maybe. Energy too stagnant. Not enough going on. Not even still in a good way. Just small. ON we go.

5, 6, 7? Found McDonald’s wireless pod.. Aaaah.. Barefoot into the bathroom, run back to the car. Top down. Found a place: How about:

Santa Maria… a little place just north east of here. Close to Luis Obisbo. Close your eyes. Throw a dart. Santa Maria Historic Inn for 89.

YES!

We are at the AMAZING Santa Maria Historic Inn at… you guessed it, Santa Maria, CA. This is what happens when you let go of “the plan” and just ARRIVE….

[slideshow]

Highway road into the hills and ranches of Central Californ-I-A. Wineries on a hilltop. Horses grazing nearby. The POP of life going on inside the car.

Life breezing by.

Here’s me in the car. Who needs sunglasses and a floppy hat in the side country.

Let the Woman Drive.

Day Who Knows…. We drive the coast. Steve takes me into the not-so-foothills of the Pacific Highway 1, rounding about and entering into tree-lined lanes that smell like Eucalyptus. We stop at Morro Bay and take in the big rock, the clam chowder and the sea salty air. The air is damp and hovers, not hot, for most of the ride, leaving a film on your hair. Until you reach the desert stretches and true foothills of mid-CA…

We stop at Harmony for a wine tour, population 18, the red Zinfadel peppery and great; the white not so much but the label says it all.

By the time we tire, we are just below San Fran, and make it only as far as Monterrey. Gambling with Priceline, we find a Marriott at half price, and get upgraded with kindness to an Executive suite. Perfect.

Why plan when you can just Land?

Self-realization fellowship meditation garden (ie., zen wahoo!)

Here is the actual quote, though different than I remember:

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
Ernest Hemingway

I imagine it is the same with California.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Carlos & Claudia in Del Mar…

July 15, 2011 Krista Moore 2 Comments

Carlos & Claudia

Oh my sweet friends, Carlos & Claudia. We had such a good time with you in Del Mar. I had to reserve a spot on my blog just for you

Here we are at the “Poseidon” in Del Mar, our oceanfront restaurant where we first met “in the Flesh” you said, after a year of knowing you Claudia, through our Evolutionary work and sisterhood. I was so thrilled to see you and look into your eyes at last! And to have sweet Carlos smiling on us the whole time. And our wonderful Steve joking and absorbing our “kookiness” (that’s a good thing), while taking pictures of us.

And our beautiful walk on the beach… the rock you chose for me, and the one you found.

Here we are… “Claudia & Carlos in Del Mar…”

[slideshow]

And here is the poem you gave me, Claudia, tucked away in your beautiful book, “Becomes Her Vision”, and the CDs of the music you play with Carlos as part of “The Celtic Ensemble”. Carlos reminded me of the Ensemble page of the book we just put out (as he held up five fingers outspread with beaming smile), that your band members are an integral part, not just the instruments, the people who play. Thank you for serenading us in the moonlight with your drum. It was a magical night!

“Changing Arrangements” by Claudia Poquoc

There are no new problems that fill our days,

as lizard’s tail twists at my door freed of claws.

Only ancient human struggles arranged in new ways.

Old Woman of the World stirs her brew in a cave.

She loves life, the mess it makes, no matter the laws.

There are no new problems that fill in our days.

“Spinning nature and culture, makes sacred”, She says,

as She threads an evergreen cloak leaving flaws.

Only ancient human struggles arranged in new ways.

Old Woman feeds our myth-mind where eternity plays.

She weaves a new tapestry when lifes edges are raw.

There are no new problems that fill in our days.

We are ever on the fringe in search of the next ray,

when all looks forsaken and death lies in the draw.

Only ancient human struggles arranged in new ways.

The Story, there all along, that our soul portrays

Our merit to creation awakens us to awe.

There are no new problems that fill in our days

only ancient human struggles arranged in new ways.

Bless you, my Friends.

P.S. I’m sure we will see each other again. In San Diego next time!

California Dreamin’

July 14, 2011 Krista Moore 5 Comments

This is the first post in a series I will be writing “on the road” in CA. I am sitting here at our first landing spot in Del Mar, south of LA, north of San Diego. But let me take a step back to yesterday, our first true day on the “job”.

I awoke feeling a little sick. Not how I wanted to feel on the day I would be boarding a plane to California, a state I had barely seen in my moment with the Mojave nine years ago. I still had the lavic rock I had scooped up there, and the memory, but I wanted to experience so much MORE…

I had been dreaming of this trip for a very long time. Through my acting life, of course, but also as a person just wanting to “go there” and “be there” in that light, that beautiful garden space coastal beauty ride. We had also been dreaming of doing our Pacific Highway 1 coastal drive for over ten years. And now, here we are….

BUT FIRST!

ugh

I boarded the plane, praying the nausea would go away. I had been up the previous night, too excited to sleep, as usual, before a big trip. And with so much to do that day, my mind was buzzing with it. I had gotten the Book out, finally! And I had completed my 30 days of miracles the week before.

I was buzzing with Life.

I also realized before I even got here, that what I imagined of LA (or any other place) would be different from the “Dream” I held about it as a kid growing up mooning over the “Oscars”, or as an aspiring actor hoping for the “Big Break”. That “LA trip” long anticipated for auditioning and film work has been preempted by MORE. (MOORE?!

I HAVE ARRIVED!!

Here I Am

We rented a Ford Mustang convertible for the trip, which awaited us in the blazing hot sun of an LA parking lot. I was grumpy as usual when hot, and made no apologies for it. I gloried in my crabbiness, my post-flight crankies. The Diva had arrived! Ah, it was hot in a jet black car. But thank God for cloth seats!

wohooo!

Where is my Big Floppy Hat and sunglasses?… I’m working on it!

There is so much more to say about our first day and last night with our new friends Carlos & Claudia, but my big black car beckons, and a fidgety husband who has 6 days to show me all of Southern CA.

Gotta get trippin’! on the big ride to “Who Knows Where …”

TO BE CONTINUED…..

Morning Calls

July 04, 2011 Krista Moore 4 Comments

I just felt like writing to you this morning! What a gorgeous Monday morning (I can hardly believe I said that). But it is. My dog just found his way downstairs after a lazy nap, and is now staring at his plaything, and sniffing a shoe. Just getting ready to move from sleep into action. Like me. It’s 8 0′clock, and “All’s Quiet on the Moore Front”. There is no enemy hovering over the hill, only the sun rising up over trees dancing in the breeze. So lovely!

What are you doing this morning?

I swear I just saw a monk passing the entrance to my driveway, or a woman brightly dressed in brilliant orange robes, sandals on her slow-moving feet. This vision reminded me of travel, of worlds beyond this one. Where I see, smell and hear everything new…

morning walk

I will be going to California soon, for the first time, with my husband. Though I cheat, I have been there before, if only for a moment: getting out of the car (coming down from Nevada) into the Mojave Desert, five months pregnant, standing in the hot and silent sun, a cave of inner listening. I picked up a rock there, a black lavic looking rock which was warm in my hands. I could only hear my breathing, and the hot air just hanging there and the sound of my feet in the sand. It was as if my own heart was beating the world into existence. I kept that rock as a talisman.

I am looking forward to rediscovering California from the eastern coastal ride up Highway 1… San Diego…. Santa Monica…. LA (briefly, but must see the basics!)…. Carmel… maybe a mission or two… and then San Fransisco where I will meet my lovely ladie(s) that I have been talking to for over a year. I can’t wait to meet you (you know who you are).

My inner world is changing too. I no longer feel worried all the time as I used to. I feel an inner calm, of being in charge of my own destiny. And Grace too. It’s magic, and it makes me giggle at times! (A wicked kind of giggle, my husband says).

Ah…. what can I share with you? That is what I think now. What can I be today that I haven’t been or done before. What is new. I feel that call now, pulling me to something greater, that beautiful, magical feeling that life is better than OK. It is not to be resisted or lamented. It is to be taken in, held and created like a warm ball of life, like that hot lavic rock melting in my hands.

Everything succumbs eventually to the sound of silence, to the sound of the primordial Yes.

I hear my call. I more than accept.

What is calling to you?

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Tag Archives: california

Haley was flying through the mountaintops*.

Just drive.

YES!

Let the Woman Drive.

Why plan when you can just Land?

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast. Ernest Hemingway

I HAVE ARRIVED!!

Gotta get trippin’! on the big ride to “Who Knows Where …”

Everything succumbs eventually to the sound of silence, to the sound of the primordial Yes.

What is calling to you?

Hi, I’m Krista Moore…

Begin Your Journey Here….

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**Haley was flying through the mountaintops*.**

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
Ernest Hemingway