Coconuts, Cockroaches & Clarity
I sit at a tiny make-shift table, a cup of coffee in my hands and the wind brushing my shoulders. The sky is a pale shade of grey. I look out and see pieces of the Caribbean Sea. In the background I hear howler monkeys calling to one another down the hill and the faint roar of the ocean behind them. Below the sky I see green. All shades of green. Ferns, palms, and tall rainforest canopy, covered in all sorts of different vines. The wooden balcony I sit on contrasts with the grey sky and green foliage.
Where am I and how did I get here? It feels surreal, distant and deliciously dreamy.
I am back in my beloved Costa Rica, but for the first time I’m tucked away up a hill enveloped by tropical jungle, overlooking the sea. The house is made from wood. At night the jungle is almost as loud as a city, except it’s a city of animals and insects singing together in a never ending chorus. In the morning all manner of giant beetles and moths are scattered on the stairs and verandas.
To live in the rainforest is to make peace with the howler monkeys surrounding your house and waking you at 4am. And it is also to make peace with the giant cockroaches that grace the corners of your room, and perch on top of the coffee maker from time to time. Both monkey and roach are merely passing through and have no real business with me. To live in the jungle is to shake out every article of clothing and every shoe before you put it on. And to over-turn every pillow and sweep off every sheet before diving into bed at night, lest a beetle of some sort have beaten you to it.
And in return the air is fresh, the fruit is sweet and the sea is salty and perfectly warm. Most days the sun licks my shoulders and my nose, reminding me to cover my skin. This Costa Rica is where my heart lives and where I have been returning for the last 12 years of my life, children in tow.
When I am here Canada feels almost non-existent. I look back and wonder how I have done it, that is, lived life in North America all those years. All the timing, and expectations, activities, deadlines, and snow….all the things that melt away like the ice in sunshine as soon as I arrive here.
This wooden veranda grounds me to the earth as I sit here, barefoot. I look out into a sea of green and feel calmed and relieved. I am at peace here. And I’m reeling in the amount of peace I feel.
I speak for my self but assume I am not alone when I say that we have learned to live in such a pool of stress and dissatisfaction in our modern culture that we don’t even know we’re living in it. We don’t even know its not supposed to be that way, until we get away and experience something different.
I am so relieved and so at peace here that when I look back at that “other” way of life I lead in Canada and can hardly believe it. This is why we come here. Well, we head south during the Canadian winter because of the harsh climate, but we come to Costa Rica for the Pura Vida. The slow pace. The dreamy relaxation and the simplicity.
Its not just the beach, the sunshine, the warmth. It’s the methodical way you can do something as simple as make a cup of coffee and be in the “NOW” as you are doing it.
Its fashionable in Canada to talk about being in our NOW and how it’s the way to peace. But commanding a culture to spend more time in the Now without lightening the load or giving that culture a tangible road –map is a meaningless command. How can we be in the now when there is always somewhere to be and somewhere to go and something expected of us. The fact is….we cant.
I think finding inner peace, or “the now” or contentment first takes a realization that the way we live in the first world will never provide it. And second it takes a decision to do something a bout it. It might be a simple decision for some, but for others it could be a great, big scary decision.
Modern life has us running too fast, to often, to far for too long. And it praises us for the very meaningless activities that are wearing us out and making us sick.
I am learning how to slow down. I mean really slow down. I am beginning to understand how attempting to keep up with modern life has caused me to become physically ill at times and, how mindfulness really is a powerful key to wellness.
Over the next few weeks here in Costa Rica I will sit with these truths and contemplate what permanent changes are imminent concerning my fast paced North-American way of life. Now if I can only get my wi-fi to work, I’ll upload this whimsical little post and share it with you! Over and out.
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