Mt. Tam

“Many mountains are taller and grander, but few are more impressive and more beautiful than Marin County’s Mt. Tamalpais.”

Mount Tam, thought to have been in existence for over 50 million years, has been providing shelter and sustenance for those who share its surroundings. Mountain lion, grizzly bear, elk and antelope wandered its slopes. Today only the mountain lion survives, albeit mysteriously. The first known settlers, the Native American Miwoks who lived in the Bay Area for over 5,000 years are thought to have revered the mountain as a sacred site.

My Connection with Mt. Tam by Karen Atkins

Mt. Tamalpais is the heart and soul of Mill Valley, the beautiful California town I moved to on my birthday in 2010. With only a 2,571-foot peak, she looks and acts much bigger than she really is. She is the anchor that draws and keeps us here, the force that frees us from too much obsession with modern city living and the sentinel that watches over us. She is a daily source of inspiration for me and everyone graced by her presence, and from her majestic vantage point she has many stories to tell about the people who have come and gone over the years.

I came to visit Mt. Tam when I was young and made an immediate and lifelong connect with her. I made a silent promise to her that I would return one day and then promptly forgot my promise and spent the next 15 years living in New York City, the absolute polar opposite vibration. After some very challenging, enriching and transformative times, I came out of a meditation one day and called my friend Michelle to tell her I was moving to Mill Valley. “You are?” she asked. “I am?” I answered, as the decision was being made as I spoke it. “Yes, I am.”

A week later I was on a plane to San Francisco. I arrived on a Thursday, saw a friend’s house on my street on Friday and decided that was the street I wanted to live on and on Saturday I found my house two houses away overlooking Mt. Tam. It was done. I was coming home to my Sleeping Lady Mountain.

One of the biggest sources of inspiration for all of this recent creativity and connection has been the powerful and freehanded** Love of Mt. Tam. Initially, I was going to use the word ‘Freehanded’ in the song to describe Mt. Tam, but I decided not to because it sounded too much like three-handed and would have been distracting. But I love the word because it describes Mt. Tam so well. Freehanded means: Characterized by bounteous giving, free, generous, handsome, lavish, liberal, munificent, openhanded, unsparing, unstinting.

The Sleeping Lady Legend

She was a beautiful young Miwok maiden in love with an Indian prince. When he abandoned her, she walked to the top of the mountain nearby and died of heartbreak. As she sobbed, the mountain heard her intense sorrow and took pity. When finally she died, the mountain was so moved it changed its form, taking on the supine shape of her body and becoming the Sleeping Lady, our dear Mt. Tamalpais.

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