Upon the evening before our return...

"The most important thing is to find out the most important thing." - Shunryu Suzuki

or said another way from the movie City Slickers:

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
(holds up one finger] This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean s***.
Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"

Curly: That's what you have to find out.

______________________________

It is 6:30pm in Alajuela, north of San Jose in Costa Rica. We are left with a few hours prior to sleep to tap away at keyboards, side by side, confirming our flights, perusing over journals from the last weeks and savouring the speedy internet connection that allows us to provide this update... We will fly out at 6:25am bound for home.

For the past 6 weeks we have been ensconsed in various forms of community, explores and reflection. It began with a glorious synchronicity that invited us into a small group of international friends (including an Australian Tibetan monk) to share a silent meditation retreat at the beautiful home lovingly created by Daniel at La Candela Retreat , where we got to watch lightning storms and lightning bugs, Resplendant Quetzals and virgin cloud forests. We were cared for and welcomed so warmly to this cozy haven of trees and stillness, plus the super blessings of skilled vegetarian chefs and 4 fabulous yoga teachers! The awe and gratefulness we feel to have had such an incredible time in meditation is H U G E indeed.

We then made our way to Rancho Mastatal environmental learning and sustainable living centre, high on a ridge in the humid tropical jungle. Our 12.5 hour journey to get there covered much terrain, from country side to city centre with a mandatory stop for the standard Costa Rican favourite- rice & beans. In the final bus ride, weaving through moutainous dirt roads past vast cattle pastures, we made friends with 2 little girls- copying each others actions, making silly faces and sharing laughing fits. Finally we arrived at Mastatal- at town with one Soda (restaurant), one bar, a community centre and (of essential note) the organic chocolate farm La Iguana! Our first night we had the pleasure (and slightly spooky 3am jungleness) to sleep on the upper floor of the open air bamboo´Hooch´ treehouse, pictured below:

Our time in Mastatal was full of friendly folks, fantastic food, tonnes of learning opportunities and much brainstorming about our lives to come upon our return. Playing with mosaics, cob building, barn raising, cooking, bread baking, writing, tending gardens, physical labour, big bugs and much more... Our time was rich with mentorship, gratitude and inspiration by a group of folks committed to ´walking their talk´around sustainability and continual learning. Plus we had lots of laughter and FUN!!!

On April 13, one of our final days in Mastatal, I sat down with my journal and wrote the following:

"We will be hugging our people at this time 2 weeks from now. We have been away, been in Central America for 3 months... What are my thoughts so far? Well, lets start with some alternate names for this trip: From NO to YES, 100 Days of Itching, Cabañas´R´Us, Finding Home From Abroad, Remembering-Forgetting-Remembering, I Should Have Learned Spanish, ´Veggies, Rice & Beans´, Vivero (plant nursery) for the Soul, and of course ´Who Knew I Could Like Guacamole More?´

"I am scared and excited to go home. Excited to create new ways to nurture our new roots, fearful of what might repulse me about our culture with these new eyes. I said in one of my facebook updates prior to our departue that this time was about pulling up our roots from familiar ground... in order to experience new ground, chart new territory - where does the light fall, where does the water pool, what flourishes, what wilts? So much fodder has grown up in the crevices over this time, so many plants reveal themselves right under our noses- ready to nurture us. So many tiny seedlings have been observed, nurtured, watered, transplanted. This trip has been a vivero for the seeds of our souls - outside much of what we typically know, do, use to fill our lives for, good or bad. Instead, again & again, we have had to generate our own direction, learned about what to listen for, what to watch out for, what to trust in order to direct us... many times floundering, often wondering: Why? Why here? What is our purpose?

"It had urged me to remember how deeply the river of meaning flows... I have learned-remembered that guidance, direction, purpose, value is almost always found in my perception rather than my actual experience... How am I viewing my experience'? What am I enacting? Can this change- moment to moment? Is this journey primarily a personal one, unique to each of us? Is the journey the same or different, wherever I am?

"Surprise! I did not become a different person through these various adventures. And yet I did too... I stayed with it even when it was hard and I wanted to run. I faced many unpleasant aspects of myself. I tapped more ways to hear myself and ask the important questions. I allowed myself to not have to "figure it all out".

And so... we arrive at the eve of April 25, about to head back to the world we left 3 and a half months ago, now with longer days and new shoots sprouting from the ground. We sit in a cozy skylit gardenside room in the cloud forest, put our socked feet up and ask ourselves "What is our most important thing, our ONE thing?"

Well, of course we had a hard time singling it down to one thing- and I will spare you the extended details here- but the summary that weaves throughout is GRATITUDE... remembering how blessed we are in each and every breath of our lives, learning to be ever more awake to our blessings: our legs that take us up ridges, our mouths that form words of connection, the abundant and resilient Nature that surrounds us, the silences we seek, the creativity that burbles up, the gracefulness of love, the blessings of this surreal time, the friends we have made, and of course the wonderful people we will soon be hugging!

See you all soon and be well! With all our love,

jenn & lee*

Hands

Once upon a city, where pinkies are polished, acrylic nails clack keyboards, and thumbs thumb intangible texts, touch is plastic, digital, artificial.

Now upon the land (of Rancho Mastatal), my fingers find the earth below our busy feet. The fine hair of roots, the symmetrical teeth of leaves, the cool scent of photosynthesis. Digits dig into fertile dirt, where bulbs are birthed and rhizomes rise. My palms hold the rich blood of Mother Earth. The work is raw and tactile, viscous and resonant with ancestral sweat and toil. Each cut and scrape is a needed reminder that our veins are filled by Her. Her bones of clay and skin of grass, scarred by machine and blade, craves the touch that too many fingers have forgotten.

My hands start to remember, what the deep roots, the supple stems, the green blades, and infinite seeds and spores already know.

My hands remember.