Hole in the Wall

I had the good fortune to visit my parents out in Washington just before Thanksgiving. I really needed to give them hugs, be outdoors with them and take a break from the news. We decided to drive out to Rialto Beach. It’s part of WA’s naturally eroding shoreline, where a gradual cycle of water and wind slowly topples massive conifers, creating a huge natural playground of epic-scale driftwood. We read that you could walk out to a a place called the Hole in the Wall, where water had carved a giant doorway into a rock, but when we checked the tide tables, we learned the tide would be too high.

So we let go of that ambition, and just let the day unfold, not needing to be at the beach by a certain time, not trying to beat the tide.

We enjoyed the scenery as we drove to the beach, and ate a leisurely lunch on the Quileute Indian Reservation watching ravens dance on an old boat dock. Eventually, we made our way to the beach and poked along the shore. We spotted an eagle perched high up in a pine, and an osprey out hunting. We noticed how the sand by the water was made up of tiny black pebbles, micro versions of the ones found further up the beach. We climbed on the giant driftwood like it was a jungle gym, paused to feel the warmth of the sun’s rays on our cheeks, and listened to the roar of the surf. We walked and talked, and looked and listened, each moment springing spontaneously from the last and unfolding into the next.

And this is how we realized, suddenly, that we had made it to the Hole in the Wall. Without striving. Without rushing past the tiny pebbles or the eagle, without missing the sun or the surf. We arrived in each moment in presence…. and then we arrived at the Hole in the Wall… in presence. I marveled at how different it felt to arrive without leaning into the goal: shoulders relaxed, legs relaxed, hands relaxed, jaw relaxed, aware of the breath moving into and out of my body, mind clear and calm able to take in everything around.

This is how meditation works, too. In meditation, not trying to get anywhere - non-striving - is how we arrive at our destination. It’s how we land in the present moment. As the great Sylvia Boorstein titled one of her books, “Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There.”

We hope you’ll join us for any, many or all of our in-person or live virtual meditation sessions. Together, we can set aside striving, and rest in present moment awareness.

Wishing you peace and presence,

Your CMP Family

Rialto Beach, the Hole in the Wall off in distance on the point.