The Orange County
My rational life came to a complete stop that summer. To the degree that I ended up moving to the most absurd place in California, maybe in the Nation - “Orange County.” An American flavour for “Côte d’Azur,” there is great beauty everywhere you stop along the coast, from Huntington Harbor to Laguna Beach. Yet even people from OC make fun of the OC. OC is like Florida – it’s a fantastic place to live if you are under 20 or over 60. And I liked it there. I just wish there were more sturdy trees to hang myself or more high cliffs to jump from.
The endless strip of sand, a surfer’s paradise, a few blocks away from my new home. Trust fund babies hanging out at the beach with more drinks than bikinis. Housewives in Newport drive many miles to Whole Foods to get one little thing, the long grocery list and a box of wine is being delivered. I fit poorly with ‘Bettys Homemakers’ and Johns Waynes’, even the yogi varieties. Killing the party or the time - either seemed frightfully empty to me. I was alone, and had no friends or work to do, but somehow I stopped feeling lonely.
Yoga
One thing one can’t possibly miss in the area - is surfing. Huntington Beach claims to be the “surf capital of the nation.” I learned that isn’t true when I spent a year in Santa Cruz. But similar to how I didn’t move to California to make millions in tech or get fame in Hollywood, I missed out on surfing in either HB or SC. I picked up a strong asana practice instead and spent thousands of hours experimenting with the postural facet of yoga. I trained with many renowned instructors, including Brian Kest, Abbie Galvin, Annie Carpenter, and Jason Crandell. Big on Ashtanga vinyasa initially, I found many connections with prior inquiries into martial arts, boxing, and callisthenics. I also quickly identified the spiritual shape of Yoga in the works of Ido Portal, Christopher Sommer, Paul Chek, and the late Charles Poliquin. I gradually adopted strength, movement, mobility training, and a more esoteric “Katonah” postural framework into my personal practice. With familiar material from my teacher Carl Jung and his many disciples, mythology, astrology, and dreamwork, my physical training evolved into a vehicle for a new journey of self-discovery.