This week, one of the most important and tranquil retreats for Bay Area dwellers, burned in a massive fire two hours north of the San Francisco Bay. For well over a hundred years, Harbin Hot Springs had been a sanctuary for healing, rest, and rejuvenation, and with its loss, many of us who took refuge there from time to time feel a great since of sadness and longing.
Destruction, of course, is not stranger to California. I have witnessed the Loma Prieta 7.0 Earthquake in 1989, the Oakland Firestorm of 1991, a severe wildfire near a science camp I worked at in 1994, as well as massive rock falls, wild deluges, high surf advisories along its rugged coast. And while it hard to see things go, there is also a sense of rejuvenation. Historically, fire has been an integral part of the forests throughout California and is suppression, has often led to even more destructive conflagrations.
This video, filmed in June of 2015 during the push toward Summer Solstice, explores the relationship between creativity, destruction, mortality, and the overwhelming beauty that comes for embracing our own impermanence.
Please send healing, love, and prayers to all of the 100 residences around of Harbin and the thousands around the greater Middletown area who lost their homes and livelihood. May the recent destruction create new depths of awareness and even greater Self-expression.