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Even in an ordinary year it's easy to get bogged down in exhausting negativity of election season. This year, according to the Washington Post, 52 percent of U.S. adults find the presidential election "a very or significant source of stress." Considering the circumstances, the only surprise is that the number isn't higher. In addition, Californians face a monstrous ballot with 17 initiatives, and Malibu residents get an extra dose of stress from a local city council election that has turned brutal in its final days. Here at The Malibu Post we had as much as we could take on all fronts, so we slipped away for an hour to an island of tranquility in a hectic world. |
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Not that it is exactly always sane. A famous musician doing an interview adds an element of the surreal, but I've also encountered wedding parties, movie crews, nudists, picnicking Goth girls, scuba divers, rock climbers, helicopters rescuing rock climbers, and once even a giraffe (it was there for a European TV commercial shoot, and not a hallucination brought on by sleep deprivation or sunstroke). |
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Even with all the human activity there is still space for wild things at Point Dume Nature Reserve. Right now, the giant coreopsis is just beginning to sprout. Thanks to the first rain of the season, emerald green emerging from seemingly dead stalks overnight. Within a month or so the first golden flowers will appear. It reminds me of the magician's trick involving sticks bursting into bloom with silk flowers.
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The coyote brush is already in bloom. Its thistledown flowers seem to glow with their own light as they the catch the late sun. |
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The sandy path reveals the passage of many feet, but I meet no one.
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Sea lions laze in the sun on the rocks below the trail. |
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Their contentment is contagious.
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From here, the path winds around the edge of the Point. |
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Past Pirate's Cove... |
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Where dolphins swim in water as blue as Kashmir sapphires... |
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And up to the top of the southernmost point in Malibu, where the Chumash people once watched the sea and the Pacific Ocean stretches all the way to Antartica. |
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Beachgoers gather on the shore as the sun begins to set. |
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The wind makes patterns on the sand. |
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A surfer catches a wave. |
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And the sun sets. The world didn't end today. It probably won't end November 8, no matter what the outcome of the elections. And here in Malibu it will still be another day in paradise. |
