This morning I was abruptly awakened before 5:30 am to the sounds of what I can only imagine to be monkeys in the trees just above my house. I am living within a natural ecosystem. Last night as I was watching the sun go down, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, what was either the largest rodent I have ever seen or an armadillo. This gave me pause (literally) to think that all of this is the natural order of things, nature and its infinite variety of species all coexisting together.
As humans, we have relentlessly continued to develop and dominate our environment to the point around us that we have become completely alarmed at a simple bug in our surroundings. I am trying to let go of all this and strip away my modern cultural conditioning and learn to simply live amidst all of these strange and foreign species and not immediately react out of fear.
Yesterday, in the course of just one single day, my fourth in Costa Rica, I encountered countless new and exotic species of birds, monkeys, a huge iguana, a white crane and what still remains a mystery, a rat or armadillo.
As is already becoming my natural morning routine, I headed to the water to meet the morning and was greeted by cool temperatures and a gentle breeze. I made my way through the heavily forested area up to the sand path that led to the water. I didn’t see another soul on the beach.
I wondered how is it possible that in all my journeys and experiences, in all of my challenges over the last 15 months, the many days that seemed to be too much to handle; after such a long road, how is it possible that I am here in this very moment of pure meditation on a completely empty and tranquil coastline in Costa Rica watching the sun slowly make its way up from behind the trees?
In Costa Rica there is a saying, that the priority of enjoying the day is more important than productivity on any front.
Every other week during 2023 I will be posting an excerpt from my upcoming book, Five Thousand Steps: A Rainy Season in Costa Rica. It is a travelogue of sorts, my journals and observations from my initial three months in Costa Rica along the Guanacaste Coast. I hope you enjoy following the journey.
Please send a request by email if you would like to pre-order your copy of the book which will be self-published and released in 2023. Please also consider supporting the release of the book by become a paid subscriber or a donor.
Field Notes
“The most appealing daily schedule I know is that of a turn-of-the-century Danish aristocrat. He got up at four and set out on foot to hunt black grouse, wood grouse, woodcock, and snipe. At eleven he met his friends, who had also been out hunting alone all morning. They converged “at one of these babbling brooks,” he wrote. He outlined the rest of his schedule. “Take a quick dip, relax with a schnapps and a sandwich, stretch out, have a smoke, take a nap or just rest, and then sit around and chat until three. Then I hunt some more until sundown, bathe again, put on white tie and tails to keep up appearances, eat a huge dinner, smoke a cigar and sleep like a log until the sun comes up again to redden the eastern sky. This is living…. Could it be more perfect?”
-Anne Dillard
Subscribe. Donate. Share the Journey.
Zen and Ink Journals represents hundreds of hours of writing over the past decade, sometimes from a train in remote China or a coffee shop in Kyoto, a hammock in Costa Rica or a simple cabin on a mountaintop in Boquete, Panama or Ciudad Colón.
On these pages, I share my observations of kindness and beauty from my adventures in the world and invite you to listen quietly for the call within you to explore the places that beckon your soul.
If you would like to become a regular subscriber, please consider foregoing the cost of one cup of coffee and a pastry each month ($8) and becoming a monthly subscriber.
If you would like to stop receiving emails from Zen and Ink Journals simply click the unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email.