Nine Breaths

SWR report
June 13, 2008

"Wanna go for a climb?"

Daphne and I, up at dawn, walked the mile or two to the base of Bishop Peak. San Luis Obispo is built around a series of nine little mountains - actually, extinct volcanoes called "morros." Bishop peak has three outcrops of big granite rocks and boulders sitting atop the peak. The volcano stands at 1,559 feet. It is the highest of nine morros that erupt from this snug valley ranging from Morro bay to San Luis Obispo. They call the morros The Nine Sisters. Daphne and I hiked through the native grasses and oak filled hills to the base of the highest granite outcrop. I love granite - it feels so solid and its gray and white surface creates an assured strong grip to the sole of your shoe. It was 10 am and warm on the east facing side of the mountain - the trail wraps around the morro and so you feel the cool trade breezes coming in from the chilly waters of Morro and the Pacific. We labored up the granite peaks, crack climbing up to the top, pulling and reaching, like a surfer through thick glass to get to the outside.

Atop the peak and just one more ledge of granite to surmise, Daphne casually claims, "Don't look around, just focus on getting to the top first - and remember to breathe." Of course that made me look out instantly and it was like immediate vertigo. I held my breath, but it wasn't a bad thing - it was like, whoa, I am really high right now - it was like the 1600 foot drop swooped up into my head and gave me a giddy feeling - better focus - and so with one more final reach, I humped my body up the last slab of granite.

There I was standing 1600 feet above the town, watching an eagle sore below, above the ocean which lay asleep at its horizon in the west, where Joe and I had accompanied so many waves to shore. Being on top of a mountain peak offers the same feeling of being out in big surf - your insides quake at the thought of any mistep, but the rush of excitement from being in the center of something so totally greater than you, like having the love of nine sisters, or even six, holding you in their bosom, comforting you in their pure power, grace and love.

We do commune in life. And it gives breath to us. Kabir said pay attention to the breath within the breath. There is a pulse at the top of a mountain - the same beat pulsates at the crest of a wave, or at the edge of a river. Earth breathes. Nine times in San Luis Obispo. Listen closely.