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.
Travel Journals: Day 3: A Rainy Season in Costa Rica
This morning I woke naturally at 5am as the light was already beginning to make its way through my window. Shortly after my morning walk along the shore I could begin to hear the gentle trickling of rain outside, then followed by a long, meditative stretch of heavy rain showers on my metal roof to awaken the morning. There is no need for an alarm here. Nature herself simply woke me in accordance with my own natural rhythm.
It was the most effortless thing in the world for me to get up, place my pillow onto the hard floor in my tiny room, and sit in silent meditation. The ants seemed to join me. For many months prior to leaving Austin, I began to observe that my mediation practice all but fell apart, largely due to the level of stress I felt in my environment, the chaotic pace of daily life, busyness and consumption in America. I became quickly aware that my daily meditation practice had gotten out of sync. On this first attempt in Costa Rica, I could not even make it for thirty minutes. Meditation or sitting is like any practice. It just takes time to get back into alignment. This is why it is called a practice.
My morning sitting was followed by my first cup of Costa Rica coffee. The room has a small coffee maker. I reflected on how much I missed my simple drip pour over maker. After living in Kyoto for a year, this routine of making my coffee became my simple morning mindfulness practice. I am sure I will find one along the way. My first cup turned out perfectly. No sugar. Sin Azugar in Espanol. At the market I had picked up what I misread to be cream the first day I was here. It turned out to be vanilla iced coffee. Likely some sugar in there. In any case, it was fantastic. I sat out on my porch amidst the tropical foliage and the gentle breeze and quietly sipped my coffee.
This was also a form of mediation. Anything done with complete focus of the mind on nothing else can be a form of meditation.
The early morning rising already suits me well. Without my phone or being tied to a fixed schedule of any kind, the morning seems to be a rich, unfolding experience. So much seems to get accomplished and yet time here seems infinite. After what seems to be half a day, I discover it is only 10am. This is Costa Rica time, Tico time as they call it. There is nothing hurried, no need to rush.
I took my morning walk on the beach. It was pure, majestic nature. Magic. There seemed to be very few people along this tranquil stretch of coastline in Guanacaste, especially as it is now coming into the low season, the rainy season. I did some exercises along the beach. My body and breathing seemed to effortlessly take on the flowing movement of the ocean and the gentle rhythm of the clouds. Internally, everything slows down.
I am mindfully adapting my body to this new rhythm, the rhythm of Costa Rica.
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.
View from the Road
Costa Rica’s English speaking newspaper, The Tico Times, recently began running a column on my travel journals from my first three months in Costa Rica during the rainy season. The column will be an ongoing series through the eyes of my experiences during my first season here along the Guanacaste coast. I hope you enjoy following along.
Field Notes
“We cherish things, Japan has always known, precisely because they cannot last; it’s their frailty that adds sweetness to their beauty.”
-Pico Iyer, Autumn Leaves
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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.
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