Jungle Boogie
Being in the jungle always brings me back to what is real, the present moment. There is nothing to do here but be, to be part of the rich tapestry that is nature herself. Her magic is a gift and that gift is healing. The jungle is like a big party where all is invited to come and play, it’s a jungle boogie filled with music of all kind.
Those of us who come from big cities, filled with lots of doing, may find it hard to accept her medicine of non-doing and being. City life offers us the seduction of always being “on.” Here in the jungle we get to practice being “off.” As I watch each retreat participants as they arrive and take in the marvel, beauty, and spectacle of this place, something in me relaxes and sighs. That part of me that knows that taking people to retreat means laying the world to the side and allowing Mother Nature to work her charm.
I’m ecstatic about being here, giddy as a child in a candy shop, only this is better. I get to bird watch and see macaws fly right in front of me, to witness a group of toucans fly mere inches above my head, their big bills leading the way. I get to marvel at the color explosion in the sky every morning as the sun rises. This is a candy shop I want to visit daily. This is true nourishment. Laughter is easy here because I am ease. I’m giddy with delight like a child because I’m in my element where I’m not expected to be anything other than myself. No masks are need here.
The women who have journeyed here with me, they feel it too. No makeup, no need to be something for someone. Here, they are being for themselves. They are putting aside the doing, being “on” for everyone else in exchange for being turned on for themselves. Nature turns us on from the inside out. I can see their faces relaxing, the smile widening. Nature has called them home.
There is pure joy in doing nothing, to revel in stillness. We have become so accustomed to being busy, being in our heads that to sit and enjoy the art of nothing seems ridiculous or a waste of time. What is a waste of time is never taking the time to just sit and marvel at what’s before you. Sitting and listening to the ocean slap itself against the shore is the most beautiful sound. That is meditation itself. Being still I can feel my body, the sensations in it, feel the flow of my breath, observe my thoughts without caring so much about what they really are. They can come and go.
There’s no need for time here, only time to know when the next meal is and when the next schedule event is. Otherwise, time is flowing without a worry. We ended our first night together with an opening fire ceremony, calling in all the elements, ancestors, Divine Feminine to guide and support us on this journey. One by one we tossed in the fire what we are ready to transmute and leave behind here in the jungle. To let Mother Nature digest what we no longer need. We danced by the fire under the star-studded sky. We held hands linking our energies as one. This is connection.
The world will have us think that we are divided. When we choose to step out of our day to day life and enter into states beyond the mundane, we witness the truth, that we are more alike than different. There is power in that, we as human beings are walking the same path towards the same destiny. Love!!