Colombia

 

"where the ocean drags its torn hem over the dark sands..." - Linda Pastan

We ended up with two weeks free in June and I couldn't resist searching the internet for "cheapest international flight". Evan was brave and took the leap. Ben was game for adventure. We booked tickets to Bogotá on Monday and left that Sunday. I broke my brain trip planning in the days between.

The natural beauty of the place was stunning... 

Rio Claro, Valle de las Cascadas, Rio Melcocho (where electricity arrived in 2012), Cabo Corrientes. Ben swung on lainas into swimming holes below oropendola nests. Flocks of toucans and troops of monkeys kept us company as we bathed off a beach of marble bedrock. We spotted sea turtles, leaping manta rays, and a sea serpent from a lancha cutting through warm Pacific waters.

People were lovely... 

Johnny (the gay bartender at Dios), the kids whom Ben played hard with (Clemente, Maria, Ilan, and Selva), the grownups with their stories of the época de violencia as well as cultural and environmental conservation efforts (Eliana whose French husband is a safety kayaker, Clemente's grandfather, Néstor and Yoly, Sandra and Hernán, Alejandro and Marcella). We saw almost no foreigners on our travels, but plenty of Colombians were out and about on school break.

Bearing witness to history was unanticipated... 

Families traveling by mule to vote in Santa Inés for the next president (the drunken policeman that day, those stricken by the results). We watched World Cup games in an Irish pub and gathered with friends sipping viche around a laptop that trailed the kitchen radio by minutes.

Lessons learned...

No need to trek in the tropics again. If there's a next time, we ride on top of a chiva. Yellow Fever vaccinations are free at the Bogotá airport. When in the bookstore, buy the book. We considered this hotel, but were glad we ended up at this one.

Details I want to remember...

How everybody greets "¡Buenos Días!" in unison with an echoed reply. The blind man with his stick, the woman lifting small weights, and the ultra cyclists all making their way along the side of the highway in a haze of exhaust from the semis hurtling by. 

Telemetry

 

Ben calls it inner wisdom. Those of faith call it god. Scientists refer to it as collective consciousness.

We are of it and return to it (in dreams, waking life, death).

Biggering

Feeling a lack of luck? 

Expand the surface area of your life so luck has a greater chance of finding you.

Feeling owned by an emotion? 

Expand your life (notice the bird outside the window, take up a new hobby, bike to school the long way) and the ratio changes.

I Believe This To Be True

• Any creature that feels unsafe is potentially dangerous.

• Behavior makes sense if you know the whole story. We often don't. Understandable is not the same as excusable. 

• Everyone is doing the best they can with what they've got. A person's best is sometimes under-resourced (shitty).

• The universe is an expanding system, one sacred whole that is ever transforming.

• The key indicators of health in any ecosystem (be it a human family or a planet) are levels of biodiversity and interconnection.

Choreography I Love

 

Go, boys!

Loss

 

you don't realize it yet

that this is when

you began to lose him

each ship sailing on

as it was meant to sail

(needed to sail)

parting company

you thought your work was done

your gaze shifted

loss is a surprise

in the wake of your vigilance

with loss

will come grief and shame

their own ocean

to drown in or cross

to be a child

who has lost a child

is a risk for

eldest daughters

Mother Lover

 

Woman as mother. It changes everything. It doesn't matter what you mother into being - a child, a song, yourself - woman as creator is the thing.