Santa Cruz

Love to everyone !  It is said that every single one of us are filled with the energy of love,  In order for this energy to flow and be released,  we must be bombarded with love.  When we conduct a good deed and love are neighbor, we help nourish love into the universe.  Not just our own love ? 
Everything we do has a ripple effect.

In this blog I am going to write about my drive into Santa Cruz.  After Monterrey I continued up and around the Bay to Santa Cruz.   Farming the land is whats going on at this part of the coast.  Serious farming as far as the eye can see.  The climate here is ideal for growing.  The morning fog comes in off the ocean and blankets the vegitation with what is equivileant to a light rain each morning.  In fact this part of the coast has the most abundant variety of plant life due to the ecologically temperate zone.  This appeals to me, big time, as a future nesting place to explore the terrain and wild forage. Moss landing was the next small town I passed through, which is basically a mini sea port along the coast.  It has a very sea like, quirky, atmosphere around here. I feel like Popeye might be popping out around the corner at any time. This is a great place to get the fresh catch of the day, right off the boats.  After Moss Landing is more farme land. Other than Moss landing, along this stretch of the coast, highway 1 runs a mile or two away from the waters edge.  I arrived next into Watsonville, CA.  Watsonville is a farmers town.  It is a cross between a small historical farming town and a cookie cutter shopping plaza.  You know the cookie cutter plaza we see everywhere in the US.  Wallmart, Costco, Walgreens Rite- Aid.  If aliens were evaluating earth from a distance they would conclude that these are very important places to earths survival, because they are everywhere and the most.  Well besides liquor stores.


As I approached the Santa Cruz area I felt a familiar comfort and excitement come over me.  I'm back along the waters edge.  I have beaches on one side of me and forest on the other. It really is a special nature vortex here, that is flowing with life energy.  The elements (Sun, Water, Earth, Wind, and Sky) come together here in a very powerful connection.  The first place I stopped was in Capitola.  A small town locate on the south end of Santa Cruz.  Great little touristy and local beach spot.  Lots of surfers, boats, kites, beach parties, and a small village setting of the beach.  The villages is lined with cafes, restaurants, art studio's, and crafty stores.  This is a great place to bring the family for a full day of fun. 

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Moving on up the coast I arrived at east Cliff Santa Cruz.  There is a lot of suffering going on up and down the coast, but it is taken to a whole new level, when you reach Santa Cruz.  In fact beach life in general is taken to another level.  Its a way of life here.  The beaches are more raw and full of activity.  There are people on the beaches at every hour of the day and night. I recall waking up one early morning, still dark, and went to the east cliff waters edge.  There were surfers already in the water and flocking to the water all around me.  Its like the ocean was calling them.  Amongst the houses piled along the coast here are surfer shrines, coffee houses, and vista points.  After hanging out on the east cliff for while, I made my way to the central section of Santa Cruz.  This is considered the Pier, Boardwalk, and amusement park area.  There is something about this part of Santa Cruz that seems like the twilight zone.  There is a peculiar mix here of many different types of energy swirling around.  Its like a ghost town that seems to come alive each day and back to a deadening silence by days end.    I hung out here for a bit and managed to set my market one day.  It was a great day and business was good, then all the sudden a policeman came by at the end of the day and told me I cannot setup here.  Officer Deeg was his name.  He told me I don't pay taxes here and I don't pay his salary so I cannot setup here.  Even though I do pay state taxes and even if I did pay Santa Cruz city taxes, I don't think he wanted me to setup there.  The whole situation really got under my skin because he was making up lies and treating me like I was def and dump.  He even made contradictions, and cut the conversation short, when I questioned him about it.  It was one of those, its not about whats right or wrong, its about what he said goes.   He even told me I could not setup on Pacific, which is downtown Santa Cruz.  Funny thing is there were a lot of people setting up and down Pacific street.  I left and thought of myself as flowing like water.  I don't want to be were I'm not wanted.   


I love Downtown Santa Cruz.   

Downtown Santa Cruz is a great place.  It is a great mix of stores, people, and artist.  Many stores have a spiritual vibe to them.There are several herb shops and health stores.  Lots of coffee houses and eateries.  You get a small town mix of locals swirled in with the tourist traveling up and down the California coast.  There are lots of musicians, performers, artist, and yes panhandlers up and down Pacific Street.  The surrounding area is filled with local art centers, churches, city buildings, and historical neighborhood houses.   Many of the trees around downtown are even historic and tower over the buildings like giants.  I enjoy walking Dakota around the neighborhood and taking it all in.  Downtown Santa Cruz has been good to me and I am very grateful for it.  A great place to stop and fuel up as I make my way up and down the California coast. 



Land of the Medicine Buddha.  I attended my first basic Buddha meditation July 24 2012.  It was at a retreat tucked away in the Redwood Forest.  One of the amazing features about the redwood forest around here is its a forest rooting on the hills and mountains.  This is perfect mountain lion terrain and feels more like your in jungle forest.  I love this about the area I'm exploring.  The Buddha retreat center sits at the top of a hill in the forest surrounded by a fresh water creek.  Another amazing place to gather and create a wonderful flow of energy into the cosmo.  There is a huge two story high prey wheel as you drive into the center that's constantly spinning.  A powerful spiritual greeting.  There are several mediation temples along the hill, a dinning hall, prey wheels, and housing for staff and guests.  They are constantly holding classes and meditation throughout the year.  I sat in on a guided Buddha mediation setting.  It was very insightful.  Fine tuning the mediation practice.  First relaxing into your seated posture.  Addressing any tension in our body and releasing it.  Next bringing the awareness to our breath.  To our breathing in and out from the belly.  After attentive breathing, which relaxes us, and filled our cells with oxygen, we move onto calming the mind.  The calming of the mind.  The foundation of meditating is the calm mind.  I start to clear my mind of all thought.  Bring to the surface my emotions, feelings, thoughts and release them with my exhale.  Release them into the river that is flowing from my third eye consciousness.  Let it all go into the river and watch it float away until its out of sight.  There are so many distraction that fill our heads with ridiculous, silly, and superficial thoughts.  These thoughts can consume our time and energy.  Its crucial to life to be able to clear out these distractions and quiet the mind. Meditation is the practice of this.  And the practice of filling it with the right things.                      
I am really grateful for, Land of The Medicine Buddha, and all the places that devote space and attention to calming the mind.    

I have been in the Santa Cruz area for a month now.  I have been bouncing back and forth between small surrounding towns, the redwood forest, the Ocean, and downtown Santa Cruz.  I am soaking in the fresh water springs, hiking, exercising, meditating, setting up my market, and meeting wonderful new people everyday.  I am spending more time on reading, about religions and spiritual perspectives.   I find that reading about these subjects before going to sleep works best for me.  The concepts, ideas, and perspectives, I read about, enter into my dream state.  I like this.
I have this stagnation that occurred in  my spiritual growth once I started putting energy towards making money again.  Its like I don't have enough energy in the day to put towards both.  Or something like that.  My attention is consumed by one or the other.  This is a key component I must work through to continue to grow and flow on my spiritual path in life.
My plan is to stay around Santa Cruz for a week or so more and then continue up north.  I think getting back on the road will be beneficial.  There is something about moving that keeps things flowing for me.  A feeling that anything is possible.  A state of mind I must grasp onto indefinitely.

Peace & Love

JaySun and Dakota.