Be present. Show up. Stay focused. These are the watchwords for living in modern times. But, I’m bucking the advice and attempting to disappear into the Coast Miwok landscape at Point Reyes. Here two of my favorite entities meet: forest and ocean. Together they create an ever-changing topography of contrasts: light and dark, marine and sylvan, deposition and erosion.
I’m letting my body soak in this scenery of opposites. Lying on top of a hill I sink into the yellowed grass until my membranes adapt to its prickliness. I watch the gulls glide and glide over the ultramarine waves until my eyes absorb all that swirling blue. I amble the woods until my nostrils can pick out the smell of heat even where there is no sunlight. I’m also allowing my mind to wander through itself…sloughing off life pieces from the past…trying on different identities. Now I’m an explorer newly landed on shore. Now I’m a nomad living with the seasons. Now I’m the wind racing through the cypress trees, now the cricket hopping from stalk to stalk.
Over the years I’ve ascertained that as much as I try to vanish, I can never escape from myself. As I put on and discard each of these snakeskin selves, I discover I’m more human than I’d like to believe. I can’t be otherwise. There’s no way for me to dissolve into the tides or dematerialize into the redwoods while I breathe. I dwell in this frame and must continue within its limitations.
As ever, nature offers counsel in unexpected methods, revealing portals where walls once stood, providing opportunity in the face of uncertainty. I come upon a whale bone bleached and rotting on the beach, evidence of natural balance. Algae settles firmly upon exposed rock, a haven of symbiosis. And a sign warns humans to keep away with the promise of baby seals in the future if we heed the notice.
I think of the Coast Miwok who tread lightly upon this terrain, learning to gather and release with the changing climates, and to set their testimonies alongside the nettle, the bear, the oak, the elk, the abalone, and the hawks they lived amongst.
A lot is made these days about being authentic on social media, about presenting one’s true and messy self online. Which, perhaps, goes some distance towards accepting our frailties as a species. But there’s something to be said about limiting the accounts about ourselves too. For decentralizing our narratives as hero, as savior, as protagonist.
So much of our detritus is preserved exhaustively, there’s very little space for nonhuman tales outside of children’s entertainment. Yet, there’s a reason we persist in returning to these chronicles for the next generation. They acknowledge our need for our fellow animate and inanimate creatures, they admit our identity as alien in a universe filled with beings other than us.
I’d like to begin that pilgrimage towards storytelling transformation. I’d like to make my anatomy a map of connections. I’d like to be a citizen of Earth even while citizenry itself is fraught with dissension.
So I straddle the outdoor and the virtual worlds precariously, in discomfort of both, struggling to memorialize that which is not me. I walk in reality pursued by the dream life, hoping its alternate perspective will present strategies which allow me to accommodate my humanity to a wider coexistence. Like the gulls above me, I circle several turns around an ancient, gnarled pine in a desire to be imbued with its sacredness.
Nothing is wasted in nature. Build-up and destruction, birth and death, it’s a succession of cycles. Can the same be true about my idleness?
The day drowns along the coast, but I continue to lie awhile above the cliffs fantasizing what sort of guidance I’d receive from the Miwok spirits as they prepare their evening meal. The lowering sun gathers up all my shed memories, the deluded identities I’m leaving behind here, and performs a vanishing act with them where the sea meets the copses. Another me remains to proclaim a new chapter.
TRAVEL NOTE:
Rising sea levels are threatening Miwok burial sites and archaeologic locales along the Point Reyes National Seashore. To learn more about their culture, take an escorted ranger walk to Kule Loklo and visit the Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin.
What are some of your favorite stories centered around nonhumans? I’d love to hear about songs, books, poems, and films which focus on protagonists other than us in the comments below.
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Toutes ces photos sont magnifiques et me font rêver 🙂 Merci.
Merci pour ces mots doux. ☺️
“But there’s something to be said about limiting the accounts about ourselves too.” When I read this, I had to stop reading to think a little. And then I started to reply here, and stopped and thought some more.
I’ve been proudly centralising my blogging narrative around my life, my existence. The last time I was home, I had a strange exchange with my sister and (“enlightened”) friend. Suddenly they were in the middle of discussing narcissism and how it all comes about – first child in broad family and all that – looking in my direction, as if to appease the afflicted.
I will always react to this kind of behaviour. (Not saying that this is what you are saying. I’m grateful to you for the push that is this post.) I kind of expect myself in my life. I expect humans in books too, possibly because there is no book without a human having written it (or if it is, it sucks). I understand that humans are on the way out but our narrative is all we really have.
Hahaha, yes, it’s natural that we think of ourselves and that we imagine us as the protagonists of our lives. It would be weird to do other than this, but it’s also true that when we do too much of it we forget how to live in harmony with the planet. Only you can decide whether you are too self-centered or not! But in my experience, you have been incredibly kind to other humans and nonhumans in your life, constantly on the lookout for the wondrous everyday delights of the world around you, always ready to share your space, your thoughts, and your privileges. I’ve learnt so much from your generosity. And you’re most welcome to share that tidbit with your sister and her “enlightened” friend.
Thank you, A. 🙂
Love your writing, felt like I was there with you, wished I was there with you, enjoying lazy days, and Nature with a capital N. I miss pristine natural surroundings so very much.
Favorite nonhuman stuff…I have a rather active imagination so I love most of it. I particularly love Piers Anthony’s Xanth series and his world of magic. I grew up with The Muppets, Saturday cartoons, and The Neverending Story, so I think it was just think of animated nonhumans as part of life.
Thank you! Wishing you time to run off to a bit of nature soon! I remember you doing a school trip to the forest at some point, but gather that was quite a ride away?
What a fantastic compendium you’ve given me. I’d forgotten just how very many nonhuman stories I had devoured as a child. And where do they all disappear to when we grow up? Long ago I read Anthony’s “Macroscope” but never got into his series books. I think it’s time to revisit him.
Spellbound by your words. An ode to Point Reyes, and an ode to the human spirit all wrapped up in one wave of thoughtful prose. Yes, there’s no escape from this wretched humanness, only hopefully eventually deep unwavering acceptance of what is as it is – and then we are free, as the birds circling overhead. Much love.
Alison
Thank you for such marvelous encouragement Alison!
I woke up and this is the first thing I’m reading this morning. Your words and the feelings, senses and images that are evoked are powerful and poignant at the same time.
Nature always is the best healer the place to restore and refresh our human frailties. I love Point Reyes it is such a treasure ~ each of your photos are pure gems!
Peta
Thank you Peta! I feel so grateful to have had access to such lovely spaces in which to rest and heal.
One can’t really escape from oneself can one? 😉
Thanks for the trip. It is one road I would like to travel once.
A bientôt
Brian
Unfortunately, no one can’t! But, it’s fun to try. Merci d’être passé Brian! Toujours apprécié.
Toujours avec plaisir. 🙂
Et tu parles Français?! Hmmm. Intéressant. Gupta est plutôt un nom de l’Inde… 🙂
😏 C’est sûr, mais un nom n’est que la pointe de l’histoire. Le français est une langue que j’ai passé plusieurs années à apprendre.
Quelle jolie façon de le dire. Un nom n’est jamais que la pointe “d’une” histoire. 🙂
(Mon nom ne dit pas que je suis né au Pakistan et que j’ai appris l’Urdu avant le Français ou l’Anglais.) Et tout mes compliments pour ton Français. Enchanté donc.
Pour un peu plus d’histoire, je recommande ce post:
https://equinoxio21.wordpress.com/2017/08/17/snowball/
Have a lovely week-end.
Mais quelle histoire c’est-ça! Cela me rappelle encore de quelle profondeur nous sommes chacun composé. Merci pour le compliment et je vous souhaite un bon week-end aussi.
Un bon week-end à toi aussi, Atreyee… 🙂
Absolutely love the photos.
Thank you very much! I’m so glad you enjoyed them.
I don’t have any good recommends that I can think of that you won’t have read. As always, I’m spellbound by your prose. It’s good to touch base with you and follow the current line of thought. I’m happy to lie on a cliff top and spiral into the sky with the birds. Sending hugs 🙂 🙂
😊 Thank you dear Jo for that! While doing my own bit of bird gazing, it’ll be nice to imagine you doing the same thing far away on the cliffs of Algarve. Many hugs back!
Your evocative writing transported me straight to this lovely coast, where “marine” and “sylvan” worlds meet and intermingle, a place where one can unfurl different layers of oneself.
I agree with everything you wrote except for the “deluded identities” you left behind. I prefer to think of them as alter egos, or parallel personalities, that are always a part of ourselves, even if we only allow them to exist for limited amounts of time.
It would be nice if the ocean could wash away those undesired traits each many of us struggle with, but I am afraid the next tide would bring them right back. 🙂
I like your idea of parallel personalities. It makes me think of doppelgängers. I’m now imagining mine wafting about the world creating mischief and mayhem somewhere totally unknown to me. 😆 Wouldn’t it be nice to have those undesired traits washed off forever? But, I fear you’re right, it’s an unending battle till death to overcome them and that’s the challenge for each of us.
You are right, Doppelgänger is a good comparison. Evil twin also comes to mind. Like it or not, each of us harbors characteristics we would rather do without.
Ah the evil twin! It’s seen as such a duality trope now, but has ancient origins in so many creation myths. Now you’ve got me thinking of reflections of the human in the monster as well which gets us to Beowulf and Frankenstein….
You know far more about this than I do, but I apologize for harping so much on the negative, the evil, the monsters. It’s important to acknowledge the good that doubtlessly exists, too, otherwise we would be depressed all the time.
It’s good to give equal voice to all the complexities within us – monster, angel, animal, god, human. Too one-sided and our tales begin to warp our truths. I’m just as fascinated as you by duality stories, and especially by how the myths of our ancestors dwelt in these layers both reflected and suppressed in shadow characters. I feel we’ve come back to those legends with something of a vengeance given the many narratives around horror and fantasy popular today.
I roared when I read your statement ‘as such as I try to vanish, I can never escape from myself’. I have definitely found that ‘wherever I go, there I am …leaving problem situations only to find that I was a big part of the problem. But with the recognition of our humanness, transformation is finally possible. And there is no better way to quicken transformation than to be still 🐛🦋💙
Disappearing to sea helped me to ‘be present’ for the first time in my life. The sailing life forced me into the here and now where the past is past and the future won’t come if I wasn’t super focused on getting from Point A to Point B …like you, a nomad living with the seasons.
Lovely images, every one. Always a pleasure to read you. Hugs from Bogota.
Yes! You know exactly how it is. After so many years of traveling, it still amazes me how much more it has taught me about life than all my school education. I continually come up against my fears and my delusions of control while journeying. Hugs back to you in Bogota!
Beautiful! Very happy to view your work again 🙂
Best wishes,
Takami
Thank you ever so much Takami! I always appreciate your kind visits and it’s good to be back in the blogging world once more. Have a wonderful week.
Have you read any of the poetry of Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)? Many of his poems express the idea of humans and their place in the environment. I thought of him because he lived in Carmel, not that far from Point Reyes.
I had not heard of him before your mention. I’m so indebted for this recommendation from you. His “Carmel Point” is so beautifully poignant and exactly what I have been thinking about: “We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanize our views a little.” So very excited to read more of his work! Thank you!
You’re welcome. I’ve found his work inspiring since the 1970s.
I am also grateful for this mention. His poetry is exquisite. As is your writing, Atreyee. I find myself completely lost in your words and experience. Certainly landscapes awakens an urge in me to dissolve and become one with them, but like you point out, there is no escaping the human body. Yet, it is through this gift that we can experience the beauty nature has to offer. I find, as I am aging, the desire to live closer to nature is becoming stronger and stronger.
Thank you Jolandi for such a beautiful compliment. I’m hoping to learn how to fully embrace my body as nature and, like you, be closer to the nonhuman world. It’s so encouraging to be able to share this desire with people like you who feel that same awakening.
I agree completely!
So beautiful and eloquent as usual. I love how vulnerable and raw your writing is. Something that really resonated with me was when you said “I can never escape from myself….I dwell in this frame and must continue within its limitations.”
I think that true beauty is found in imperfection. You are beautiful despite your layers. Your past is what got you to where you are now. Perhaps it’s not about “shedding” those identifies but rather taking them with you in your journey with acceptance. Safe travels x
Thank you Kylie! I truly appreciate your kind and thoughtful advice. As I continually seek to develop as a person I try to both accept my imperfections and shed those parts of me which no longer serve. It’s good to be reminded though, that my experiences should be viewed without regrets, in the light of making me who I am. Happy trails as you enjoy springtime in your part of the world! 🌷
I love your photos (I realise I’m focusing on you but had to say it). 🙂
Thank you Lynette! Your sweet words of encouragement are always welcome to me. 😊
Interesting thoughts, as always. Non/humans… I read a book a while ago that I loved, fantasy was its genre I guess… The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker.
Thank you for the book recommendation! I’m looking forward to hunting this out to read.
I also really enjoyed this book.
😁