Shine Your Sacred Self
I woke at 5 and captured this recording of the monkey’s morning ritual to share with you.
Howler monkeys can be heard throughout the day here, but tend to more active right before dawn and at dusk. I’ve also noticed that they’ll hoot and holler if they hear a sudden loud noise, like the large trucks that rattle down the road throughout the day. Continue reading “Meditating with the Monkeys”
Since moving to Costa Rica, I’ve been struggling not to wake up at 4:30 every day. This is strange, as Costa Rica is a much quieter country than Nicaragua. There’s hardly any street vendors, I haven’t seen any day time parades, let alone one at four o’clock in the morning, and I’m surrounded here by jungle instead of the bustle of family life. When I wake, I hear the sounds of Howler monkeys as if they’re moving in waves through the forest. The birds make their welcome day sounds and the insects drone their different tunes, all blending into a soft melody that should be easy to sleep to. Here’s a sample I recorded at 5:00 this morning:
I finally got to see the sun yesterday in this Costa Rican paradise. The heat and light transformed the town and brought the beaches to life. Still pristine, the ocean yesterday was peppered with people from all over the world enjoying their dia libre a la playa.
Today, it’s back to un dia fresca, with a bite in the air and lots of rain. I noted the grey crowds as I began my yoga practice this morning, looming heavy above the green canopy of the forest. Continue reading “That Which Sustains”
I’ve long coveted the skill to drive a manual transmission, but it’s been just out of reach for years. I learned to drive with an automatic and have only ever driven them since. There was a brief spin around the highschool parking lot in my sister’s manual car, but those details faded over the years.
Enter living in Central America. While it’s entirely possible to go one’s whole life in the US without missing this skill, the majority of cars south of the border are manuals. Continue reading “Learning to Drive”
The pace of life is slower and strangely more bureaucratic in Central America. For one thing, there’s no Google search with Costa Rica results, or GPS, or even a reliable internet connection! These are all things I had come to depend on in my day-to-day life in the States before I left – especially GPS, as this girl is was not there the day they handed out a sense of direction. For another thing, when you do find out where you need to go to accomplish a task at hand, the person who can help might be out for lunch, or the week, you might learn on arrival that you need a list of documents that don’t seem to correlate at all to the task at hand, or you may find that you must first visit two other offices before returning to building number one to accomplish your goal. Continue reading “Getting Things Done”
The rainforest is abundant with life. I walk around feeling like an ant in A Bug’s Life, with huge leaves towering around and above me. We have fresh flowers clipped in vases placed around the hotel, and I’m constantly amazed by the variety that I’ve still yet to notice in the lush jungle that surrounds me. I’m drawn out of my morning meditation by the sounds of howler monkeys in the distance. I feel blessed to be able to interact so closely with animals I’ve only ever seen previously on television or in National Geographic.
I spent the morning recently at the Jaguar Rescue Center, which is just a short walk up the road from where I live. Unlike the poorly underfunded rescue center in Nicaragua, the Jaguar Rescue Center has ample space to house a variety of animals that it saves from animal trafficking situations and from locals and tourists who encounter the injured animals. Continue reading “Un Monton de Vida”
Turns out, it rains a lot in the rainforest. The rain is welcome after living with the Nicaragua dry season since November. My hair is curly again and my skin no longer itches from being so dry. My clothes, however, always feel the slightest bit damp, as does my yoga mat when I roll it out for my morning practice. The rainforest here is so lush that I can easily walk from my bungalow to reception and get only a few drops of water on me.
