How could I even begin to try and explain this incredible beauty to anyone - it is more majestic, magnificent, and positively outrageous than could possibly be imagined, a grand white masterpiece, a testament of fervor and depth, standing boldly alone in the moonlight. Its luminous glow and immense stature, its unearthly proportions and prominence, its incredible surroundings and placement in the most magical and unique of areas - making it one of the most special and deeply powerful places on earth.
My heart cries out in pure joy every time I come to face it, taking it all in like a huge gulp of fresh air, filling my lungs with hope and breathing in new life and energy to my entire soul. The White Beauty, jutting out to the Mediterranean sea, looking calmly and boldly at Africa’s mountainous coast is hard to take in even if one is directly in its wake and presence. How the sky meets the horizon over the sea as the day bids farewell and sets off to rest, the brilliant sunset carrying a rainbow of color and a warm rush of cool to all five senses, awakening the mind and heart. Sometimes one must push the limits of color and shadow in order to communicate such lush, complex and oftentimes otherworldly details. What we experience in life can oftentimes be difficult to transmit in a still image or words no matter your capacities. As the ever eloquent Anna and Galu put it: To truly understand this place one must take it all in, absorbing it, feeling it with the whole and all of you. Breathing the sea air, feeling the cool breeze on your face, the wind in your hair, the ground beneath your feet, and the warmth in your heart is but a fraction of the experience - to see it is to believe it, the boundless color and sensibilities that roam freely are so complex, so rich and so deeply full of emotion - capturing this in a photo can be a task near impossible. I couldn't agree more, as we all spent the day looking through photos of something we know so well, every nook and cranny, and yet we felt as though we were experiencing it for the first time again, regaling each other with stories of how we each experienced that precise moment differently. The coming night and blazing encore of colors bringing an entirely new set of experiences around this place, a place I have so quickly come to call and feel like home, with so many grand memories here, and so much joy and warmth from those special few that make it so dear to me. The intensity of the space is actually so much more than can be described here, the blessings beyond reality, the grandiosity of this Stupa is well past the point of technical description as it is quite simply bigger than life.
The White Beauty stands on the edge of the world, peering out into the sea like a great white guardian manning their station at the fortress entrance to the heavens. The sun sets over the mountains as the Andalusian coast sets in for another warm and peaceful night - with the Great White Beauty guarding its shores.
Stupa de Benalmádena
