So, this year started so many new adventures… The first one of which so happened to be a two week long stay in Los Angeles, California. Johnny, whom which I had the pleasure of staying with, showed me a very different side of the city, a side filled with vibrant color, wild and eccentric vibrations, and weather that makes you dream of bronze, beautiful, human beings hanging along the West Coast shore.
If you’ve never been to LA, I think you’ll agree when I say that the energy in that city is a fascinating one. I almost felt (being the natural introvert I am), trying to immediately fit into a culture that I have never quite experienced anywhere else. I remember feeling a sense of inadequacy - not understanding fully the part of myself that had to do with my physical appearance, the way I dressed, my hair - pretty much everything involving outer energies. I’m a libra and naturally love thinking of all of those things, expressing myself through aesthetic, and projecting new versions of myself through my clothing and style. In Good ol’ Hollywood, I definitely understood what the whole “cliche” was about. The pressure of feeling, to be, and look the best, almost past the lines I never knew I could get close to passing myself. I felt the affect so intensely there. It challenged me, it made me feel alive, it made me feel imperfect. That everything I ever told myself I was “comfortable” with externally, could be wiped clean, and tested to my very core. To the point of losing myself for a second.
I am always grateful for those moments. The ones that make you realize that there are places where everything you’ve ever known isn’t a reality. A place where morality, inner, and outer beauty, and culture take on a different perspective in every aspect. It definitely shook and rattled my bones. It chased me back to the quiet place within me that I know, in the craziest of times, can renew my focus, and bring me back to planet Kevin. The place where my inner truth can commune and communicate in harmony with my mind, heart, and everything surrounding me.
All that being said LA as a city, in it of itself, is a place I feel like I’ll always return and be super happy to revisit anytime. Especially the Pacific Coast Highway. A place I still day dream about today… I remember making sort-of a pact with Johnny, that if I came to Cali to visit him, that I had a condition, that being, that we either need to drive to Big Sur or, spend a weekend in San Fransico because I’d never been and have always had a desire to go.
Big Sur is a Vortex. I never knew that I could experience a place in a car the same way i experienced mountains, hiking, or being in the depths of a forest - getting lost in time and space and feeling one with everything outside and in. When we decided to go we wanted to rent a convertible - just to be the nerds that we are. It was about sixty-ish degrees the whole day. I packed two different shirts and a sweater for the drive because I knew not only would I feel a little cold the whole time, but I wanted a variety of clothing to wear for our pictures I knew we would inevitably take. Johnny drove the whole way up. We blasted music the whole time and probably only exchanged conversations that I could count on one hand. It’s nice to have a friend you don't feel obligated to talk to. No distractions, just purely enjoying and experiencing something beautiful. We got pulled by the cops for going too fast, stopped in Santa Barbara for an Acai bowl exchanging some flirtatious banter with the cashier, stopped at every possible beautiful spot on the way up and snapped so many freaking pictures. When we finally made it to the main scenic viewpoint of Big Sur I felt so excited to step out of the car and get to the edge of the cliffside. Johnny and I took pictures and were both purely stunned by its majesty. It was the first time I had ever seen something so vast, and so naturally big… Like one of those pictures you see in a crazy thick Taschen book, but in physical present form. The kind of thing you only really imagine some extremely experienced and well known photo-journalist has access to. It moved me in a way that gave me peace - even around all the commotion of the crowds I still felt completely un-phased by them. I felt that Big Sur knew Johnny and I were coming and knew exactly what it was going to give us. I remember distinctly thinking how I just didn't really want to go back home. I wanted to breathe the air and stare into the infinite ocean meeting me half-way right on the edge of the Californian coastline. After 9 hours getting from LA to Big Sur, it was the coolest reward and felt like a fraction of a moment in time. What an incredible day that was and will always be ingrained into my memory.
Its such a blessing to have a friend living on the other side of a world, and I'm incredible grateful to my good friend Johnny who has shown me the utmost love, and kindness and has given me a gift that is so precious.. An opportunity to enter another world, and experience life and love and what that is like for someone else living so far away.
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