It’s 6:30 am in the rainforest. I’ve gotten up, packed,
organized my pics for upload, charged all my devices, straightened my room, and
am waiting for breakfast, which starts at 7, but where I don’t have to be until
7:30 (we leave at 8:30). Although I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about coming
here, this has been an AWESOME trip! The
rainforest and the conservation efforts are great, but the peace and serenity
afforded by no phone, internet, tv, or roads – basically no contact with
outside civilization – that has been priceless. Bug spray is at a premium, but
aside from that, I think if I spent a month here I could probably forget about
the “civilized” world altogether. It’s a
completely different vibe here, and the Spirit runs really high.
I don’t see any churches, though. I had fantasies of a CME mission on
Tortuguero, and having a group of young people come every year to do things
like build houses, lay wiring for internet, etc – and then I remembered that
the goal of this place, at least, is to intentionally AVOID all that.
Something happens when we humans converge on
a place. It seems we are unable to
appreciate God’s gift to us, wheher that’s in the natural or the spiritual. We always have to put our own stamp on it,
suiting it for our purposes, rather than conforming ourselves to that which God
has given us The former’s not working so
well for me these days; may be time to get very serious about the latter.
But right now I’mma take a shower and get my luggage to the
main building before there’s another downpour.
We’ve been quite fortunate during our stay here – me especially, since I
don’t know where my umbrella is and didn’t bring a poncho – there’ve been a
couple of sprinklings while we were on the boat, and a couple of showers, none
lasting more than 5 minutes, while we were poolside There was a big downpour yesterday right
after I got off the beach; it lasted maybe 10-15 minutes. But this morning maybe from about 1 to 4 am,
there was TORRENTIAL downpour!! I didn’t bother to get up to look at it, but it came hard ad
fast. The rooms here don’t really have
windows – there’s just screens up covered by curtains with panels in them. This is because there’s no a/c, only a fan to
circulate air. And quite franly, that’s
enough. With all the greenery things are
relatively cool, but with rain like this, it’s quite damp. It feels like the clothes I wore yesterday
all weigh a few extra pounds, and they don’t seem to have dried off. I had some crackers that I threw out because
they’re damp. The humidity is oppressive
at times. The blessing is that the
weather changes frequently and significantly – it’s damp and humid now after
the rains – the sun could come out and dry everything out soon. Although now I understand why all the
sidewalks and verandas are raised – the lawns are sunken, so that when the
rains come, the water can run off the sidewalks and into the lawns.
The “m” key sticks on this laptop. Annoying
I’m off to get ready. Next post
will likely be written possibly from Guapiles but more likely from SJ. The howler monkeys are out…
Oh. Don’t know if I
said this yesterday, though I have voiced the sentiment many times. It’s really annoying to me when I go to
countries where people expect, demand, beg for tips. It occurs for me as both rude and
greedy. A tip, after all, should be
discretionary and should not be expected.
Having said that, I am aware that some people only survive because of
tips (And I’m talking people in NYC).
That conversation got a completely new perspective yesterday as I sat
with my camera around my neck and realized that camera likely costs more than
some of these people’s homes. Why
wouldn’t I share some of what I’ve received?
The breakfast bell has sounded. Let me get showered and fed.
9:39 am – So breakfast was great: eggs, gallo pinto, pancakes, salchicha,
fruit, bread, and coffee. We settled up
our accounts and came on a nice boat ride to La Pavona, the place (not
almendreja as I said before) where you change from your boat to your bus and
vice/versa. Because of last night’s
rain, the water was about 2 meters higher than normal; combine that with the
fact that it was lower than normal when we came in, and our boat ride out was
only about an hour, compared with the 90 minute ride in. So we are sitting here waiting for another 45
minutes or so for the van to come. The
rest of the group will go to Guapiles to rent cars: the young couple and the older couple who met
while working on a cruise ship along with their 10-year old son Alexandre, will
rent cars and go to the same hotel in front of Arenal. Francois (who works for a French company that
makes bumpers for GM and BMW and has plants in Henderson, NC and somewhere in
SC and is starting one in Chattanooga), his wife, and their two teenaged kids
(male and female, aged 17 ½ and 14) will rent a car and go on to Turrialba and
then to Arenal. Me? I’m going to SJ and then back to NYC. It’s been a great time, though!!
Kenneth, our guide, has been great. I’m still on this “rainforest as place of
spiritual renewal” trip. As we rode out
this morning and I looked all around, where I’m sure some of the saints would
see bugs and yukky trees and whatever, I kept hearing “Majesty. Worship His Majesty…” And that’s ok. Everybody doesn’t have to sit up in church
all the time. There’s something to be
said for going into all the world and sharing the Love everywhere you go. I guess that’s mission work, kinda – I’ve
spent enough time doing service work that I’m not in favor of just going
somewhere and trying to “help” people.
What I think is helpful to you may be very different from what you
consider helpful to you; for my help to be meaningful, I need to give you
something you want and can use. Which, I
think, I why building relationships is important. I can preach as effective a message through
my interactions with strangers as I can from a pulpit.
Jesus doesn’t have to be oppressive or cloying or
overbearing and certainly not self-righteous.
The physical world has beauty and blessings and gifts and rewards for
us; we can accept the or not; we can use them wisely or not; we can protect
them or not; and we can maintain/sustain them or not. There are rules that govern how we move
safely and productively in this physical or natural, world. The same is true in the spiritual world: our Creator has endowed us with beauty and
blessings and gifts and rewards and the choice to accept, use, protect,
maintain and sustain them – or not.
There are laws that govern how we move safely and productively in this
spiritual realm. Many people spend time
obsessing over the laws; I think that once one has grasped the concept, one is
then faced with the task, not so much of discussing or parsing or adhering to
the law, but of governing oneself by the Spirit of that law, and THEN walking in
one’s gifts to be, do, and embrace all our Creator has allowed. Which, of course, is beyond our wildest
dreams. We get so caught up along the
way that we always end up limiting what is available.
If you’re reading this you probably think my mind is wandering
yet again. It’s not. I’m sorta overwhelmed with what an incredible
life I have, with how many opportunities I’ve been given, and I’ excited to
contemplate the next step of my journey, but I am SOO not wandering. My heart, mind, and spirit are re-focusing. It seems that, with all the distractions of
“modern” life, it’s easy to lose focus, to get caught up in the minutia of day
to day living. Getting away from it all
is allowing me to re-focus. I pray I can
maintain it.
But now there are birds chirping and people milling
around. More later.
Pics form the day are
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