“Yeah, but isn’t it dangerous?” It is a common question I get when people hear that I live in Baja California. The answer is yes, but not in the way you might think. It's a place where unexpected encounters can change your life forever.

The story begins on a late October evening in 2009. It was almost sunset. Sitting on the patio of my grandmother’s house (that had recently become mine), I waited to see if there might be a green flash as the sun dipped lower in the sky. I had a beer in my hand and chips and salsa beside me.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, and in my peripheral vision, I saw movement. When I turned my head to look I saw the cause - a small shepherd mix puppy, wagging not just her tail, but her entire hind end. 

“Well were did you come from?” I asked her, not really expecting a response, but wondering nonetheless. 

“Interacting with horses can be immensely therapeutic physically, mentally, and spiritually, helping people reawaken long-forgotten abilities that are capable of healing the imbalances of modern life.”

-Linda Kohanov from The Tao of Equus

Let’s be honest: pastoring is demanding.

Between sermons, counseling sessions, committee meetings, and the ever-present needs of your congregation, finding a moment to breathe can feel like a luxury. Yet, amidst the whirlwind, haven’t we all felt that yearning for a deeper connection with God? That which called us to this work in the first place? What which we wanted our lives to be about?

But, in modern life, and in modern church life, in the midst of Bible studies, prayer groups, and outreach programs, not to mention session meetings, the idea of connecting with God can often seem like a luxury, rather than a given. It is as though the faster we move, the harder we push, the more elusive that connection seems.

I took a little spin ‘a pelo’ (bareback) with Alegría yesterday.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, that one innocent sentence says so much more than just those ten words.

The thing is, those ten words have been more than a decade in process. A decade of learning to overcome fear, gaining confidence in the saddle, learning, poco a poco, how to hold myself, how to connect with my horse, how to see and hear that which I didn’t have eyes to see or ears to hear.

Those ten words also represent an ‘unlearning’ as well - an unlearning of depending entirely on the externals - my saddle to keep me safe, balanced, secure and an environment free of unknowns that might frighten my horse. An unlearning of depending solely on externals and realizing that the balance, alignment and agency I have sought are actually inside of me, have become me.

It was a simple thing, that short ride yesterday. And yet it represents so much more.

Yesterday Pamela posted a very thoughtful reflection, and a humble one, on some of the things she has learned from living here in Baja, particularly around the ways people interact with one another. (I am hoping she will make its settings public so I can reshare it directly with you).

What struck me in reading her reflections was how easy it can be, without intending, to be blind to the other. As Americans we tend to be overly direct, focused, and goal oriented in a way that often makes us appear rude or thoughtless in Mexican culture.

As I read her reflections I couldn’t help but connect them with so much of what I have learned, and am learning, by spending time with the horses.

What if the bush had been burning all along and Moses simply finally had eyes to see?

I worked in the garden yesterday. I love to work in the garden.

I often think of my grandmother, Mama (pronounced Mam- Ma) also known as Tianna (Tia Anna or Aunt Ann), whose house, and garden, this once was. Someone told her that it was good to talk to your plants. She answered, I do talk to my plants everyday. I say to them, “Grow, dammit!”

We all live

to discover beauty.

Everything else is a kind

of waiting.

-Kahlil Gibran

Hineinhorchen: “To listen within, and there to wait until you become one big space inside, without the sneaky bushes that obstruct the view. So that in this way something of the Divine enters into you. To wait until something wants to melt and wants to start flowing in you.”

~ From ‘The Taste of Silence’ by Bieke Vandekerckhove

(Quoting Etty Hillesum)

“We are here to learn to bear the beams of love.” -William Blake

It can be so easy, when faced with something senseless or heart breaking, to want to batten down the hatches of your soul. I myself have felt this urge acutely in the past 24 hours.

Nestled amidst the rolling hills and vibrant coastline of Baja California lies the charming town of La Misión. Each year, over the last weekend in May, the town transforms into a stage for a captivating celebration: the Fiesta en La Misión. This free two-day fiesta is more than just a party; it's a vibrant tapestry woven from the rich history and traditions that have shaped this unique coastal community.

This morning as I was sitting on the patio reading @annelamott ‘s new book Somehow it hit me - well, actually, it didn’t hit me. It was more like watching the water level in the estuary rising - slowly, gently, but steadily and very definitively. In this case it was not a rising water level but a knowing that came over me.

What was that knowing?

Last fall I took a quick work (photography) trip to San Francisco. It had been a decade since I’d been in the city, and it was fun to be back. Less than 24 hours after arriving I was in an Uber back to SFO. So when I looked out the window I thought that perhaps the ‘jet lag’ of being out of my known world had me hallucinating.

There in the next lane was the craziest car I had ever seen. It had extended spinning cameras on each of the headlights and taillights. On the top was a rotating satellite looking thing that kept spinning around. I almost asked my Uber driver about it, but I didn’t want to seem naive to the big city life so I kept my mouth shut. (This is also why I didn’t get a picture of it.) It was a strange sight.

“Start your day knowing that your purpose is to be the vehicle for Love.

“Fill with Love; there is no need to judge.

With your minds you build walls that keep the idea of separate alive. When you resolve this judgment within you, you will experience Everywhere all at Once.

Two years before going to seminary I stopped going to church. I don’t normally talk so directly about such things, at least not on social media. But I can’t help compare the experience to a situation I had with my horse Luna about two decades later.

Years ago I participated in a mini retreat. I don’t remember even how I came to be at the gathering, or really what the theme was. I believe it was led by an author whose book I had read on sabbath. The other participants were all decades older than me, and had a wisdom about them - sort of in a Gandalf, Dumbledore, or Obi One Kenobi way.

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

-JRR Tolkien

In the past 8 years I’ve taken literally thousands of people horseback riding. It’s a bit hard to believe considering I only learned to ride about ten years ago! Some people just want to ride a horse and get some photos for their social media and that’s the end of it. But some people, those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, find something more in the experience than just a horseback ride.

I think it often surprises them. It is not necessarily something they even know that they are seeking, or something they even know they had lost. It was not something they set out to discover, or rediscover.

What is it that they find?

Craving an escape from the ordinary on your next Baja adventure? Forget the crowded tourist spots and skip the endless search for the best taco stand (just for a moment). Tucked away on the scenic free road toward Valle de Guadalupe lies Cocos Santa Rosa, a hidden treasure in plain view.

This isn’t your typical roadside stand. Run by Juan Manuel “Menu” Garcia Lara and his wife Cristian Crosthwaite, Cocos Santa Rosa is a family run business and an experience more than a pit stop.

But some of you might be wondering, what is a coco stand in the first place? Well, I’m glad you asked!