I’ve been fairly quiet on the blog front lately, but my head has been spinning with new thoughts as I’ve been living and learning and soaking up the beautiful energy of this amazing place. I’m not ready to write a long post on any one topic just yet. Instead, I prefer to educate and integrate these ideas. In the meantime, here’s a peak at what’s brewing.
E-Coli
Foremost in my conciousness is the illness I just got over. A week in bed sicker than sick with a virus that’s been flying through town. When rainfall is low here, the wellwater tends to get infected. The natural health doctor here at the hotel told me the symptoms sound more like E-Coli than a virus. He presribed probiotics, a tea brewed from the leaves of a guayaba, or guava tree and the leaves of a marañón, or cashew tree, with lots of pipa water – the water of fresh, young coconuts. It was a slow process, but I am recovered. It blew my mind how quickly the tea from the guava leaves worked — after drinking only 1/2 a cup of a tea brewed with 5 leaves boiled for 10 minutes, my stomach cramps would disappear for hours!
Gift Economy
Costa Rica and Puerto Viejo seem to vibrate to a higher frequency. There are many travellers passing through and many who’ve chosen to make this their home, and cash-money may not be readily available. I thus find myself pulled in two different directions – the one – to allow free use of the business I manage, and the other – to meet the financial obligations on time and with a smile. While I agree with many of the ideals of the gift economy, I find myself stressed out by the different demands of the two extremes.
St. Francis
I tend to sit up and pay attention when I notice an idea being repeated in different mediums and over time. St. Francis has been reverberating in my life for months now – whether he be a character in a book I’m reading, on the front pages of the newspaper as inspiration for the new pope, or a quote inserted into something altogether different, I keep being reminded of the lessons of poverty and simplicity that St. Francis embodied.
Community
One of the things I enjoy so much about being here now is that I feel I’ve landed in such a spritually strong yet non-homogenous community. It feels that everybody I meet is on their own path to higher conciousness and divine connection, but each truly is following their own path. There’s no pressure to conform, but there is an open curiousity as each person shares the lessons they learn on the paths they walk.