FALL 2008
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Pg 14 - Spirit
SPIRIT
A Place of Joy
Atop a knoll overlooking the Ojai Valley is Meditation Mount. The signs tell you this is "a place of light and stillness," and so it is. This outpost is a little more than two miles past the charmingly artsy downtown of Ojai. You drive through the groves of orange trees, and up a winding path from Reeves Road. In 1971, a meditation group created this special place that's devoted to nothing less than the nurturing of souls. The hillside perspective inspires a turning inward, toward the rhythm of your heart, and ultimately, a connection with spirit.
Two simple buildings are found here, one with a small library devoted to spiritual books, but that's not why you come. The pathways beckon you to one of several stone benches, and you sit and listen to the quiet that's become so rare. You can actually hear the skitter of a tiny brown lizard, the fine buzz of honeybees, and then, the motorlike thrum of a humming bird's wings, hovering inches away at a purple-flowered bush. You can watch the sun rise here at Meditation Mount, and people gather to do that, especially on Sundays. People say that a few times a year the entire valley, not just the mountains, glows with a pinkish hue, and there's no better place from which to see it. But even the afternoon light and its occasional shadows place the trees and orchards of the valley and the sides of the Topa Topa Mountains, in sharp relief.
To Native Americans, the presence of a hummingbird means joy, and yes, that is what you find here. It's a joy that requires only that you sit quietly to greet it, here in the soul-nourishing stillness that looks not so very different than it would have 500 years ago. www.meditation.com - Evelyn Theiss