Man goes into dessert and comes out a different person.

(Note to reader: On my trip to Baja I started taking voice memos on my drive to record my observations, thoughts and feelings, something I’ve never done before.  This is one of them. For some reason the first 14 seconds were lost and I have no idea what I said that began this. Also,  this has been edited because not only do I have a valid drivers license,  I also have a creative license.)

…driving in this spectacular wild dessert landscape, I feel calmer in my body on my journey up than I did on my way down.

My experience of getting stuck in the sand and doing everything I could to think through the problem and solve it and not give up and then in a moment of resignation, letting go and entering the ocean on a wild and desolate beach to cleanse myself of sweat, rid myself of dirt and rinse off frustration and when coming out seeing two men who pulled me out of the sand with a beat-up truck and a beautiful spirit is both experience and metaphor

There was something to trying to unstuck myself on my own--versus running for help. To (try to) figure it out with my mind, to dig myself out with my body from the problem that I created for myself. 

I really tried. I dug and dug and dug. I did everything I could.  It felt good to have self-reliance be the approach.

Speaking of journey’s, I went somewhere while sleeping on the floor of the valley of the Sierra San Francisco Mountains with the sky first lit up by satellites, then stars and then moon.  The internal journey I went on traveling through vast memories like the night sky was transcendent. 

I needed to go where I went and also recognize what I was feeling in this profoundly beautiful place that holds humanity through time. The human spirit shines with every human interaction in Baja.

The people who rescued me didn’t speak english and I don’t speak Spanish. Through a translate app on their phones they told me 

“They rescued me to do something positive for humanity”

There is a truth in there and a beauty in that. This is what is missing from the world. I feel the cave art that is here may be the reason for this.

Baja is not an easy place. It’s raw and wild. Baja is a day drive from Los Angeles and people are rightfully afraid to come down here. They should be, the wildness here is dangerous and doesn't exist anywhere I know of in the United States.

There is also a spirit in the people that is beautiful. I’m thinking of this driving in a stunning arid landscape.  I’m also wondering what this place was like flowing with water.  Water used to flow here. It doesn’t anymore. Everything always changing.

I think in addition to the cave paintings, what also makes people hospitable is  desertification, the difficulty to survive in this beautiful but yet unforgiving place—be helpful and kind to others because one day you are going to need others to be helpful and kind to you. Everyone knows this even if they don’t. 

Baja, I love you and I’m falling in love with you as I’m inside of you and you are in me driving north, listening to you sing to me with my radio off.