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Not hardly. It’s just that La Casa de Maria is a soundless place.
“It’s easy to live in the neighborhood and not realize that 12,000
people come here every year, quietly and respectfully,” said Steve Jacobsen,
the new co-director for program development and community relations,
who previously served on the board for more than 20 years. “And once
they’re here, they don’t make a great deal of noise, either. There’s just so
much silence.”
Indeed. I spent nearly two hours on the grounds that first visit
and spoke few words to anyone. Instead, I checked out the spaces – the
meditation chapel, the Sadako Peace Garden, the Loft, the organic garden,
and the orchard.
I think it was about halfway through walking the mandala that it
dawned on me that this might be Montecito’s best-kept secret, a little jewel
of a space, a treasure very few locals ever visit. La Casa is a real unknown
gem in the community, just yards below San Ysidro Ranch, one of the
most famous places in the village ever since John F. Kennedy and his bride,
Jackie, honeymooned there almost 60 years ago.
Why is that, I wondered.
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