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 4: A Rainy Season in Costa Rica
There is a stretch of beach to the estuary across from Tamarindo where I picked up two native branches that washed onto shore that will make great writing or painting brushes. I am already noticing and communicating with some very unique birds here. Their songs are unlike any I have ever heard before.
Today is also Tuesday, the day for the local fish truck to stop by for delivery. I was texting the owners in Espanól for my order. They arrived, a kindly couple, with my fresh kilo of Mahi Mahi delivered to my door: fifteen dollars. I am happy to support the local people who have been hit so hard during the pandemic.
It is now just 11am. The pouring rain will be here at 2. A nap is already calling. I have been up and moving for 6 hours already. It is a good rhythm. Now I fully understand the concept of siestas in Central America. Even two a day are not uncommon. It has been freeing to realize how rarely I need to be on email. This is liberating after 25 countless years in Corporate America. When one steps away it is so obvious that we have self-created the whole web of minutia in our modern culture in America. I am slowly but easily adapting to this pace. It is actually the rhythm of nature if we pay close attention. I came across a quote that said in Costa Rica, the priority of enjoying the day is more important than productivity on any front.
Preparing the fresh Mahi Mahi just off the local truck was a magical experience in the abundance of nature that can only be found in simplicity. My fish was almost a foot and a half long and was delivered to my doorstep. My tiny kitchen has only a few cooking items at best. I have only a water spigot such as the kind used for a garden hose and a sink with only cold running water. Fortunately, there is a small toaster oven, perfect for baking fresh caught Mahi in about 10 minutes. I happened to have fresh locally baked tortillas on hand which made for the most delicious, five-star fish tacos I have ever had. They were like tasting the most tender, moist brisket I have ever eaten, but lighter and not heavy on the stomach. Lime topped the tacos off perfectly. Perhaps I will consider opening a food truck here.
It is only noon. A nap calls for me.
Ten things I saw today:
A Brown-Crested Flycatcher
2. Two Monkeys in a Tree
3. A Sunrise Walk on an Empty Beach
4. A White Crane
5. Waves crashing against Cliffs
6. A Smile from a Beautiful Woman
7. A Steak Taco served by a waitress named Grace
8. The Kind, Friendly Eyes of Neighbor
9. A large Iguana
10. A Crab beside my foot at Sunset
Field Notes:
5:30 am Sunrise: wake and greet the day
5:45 pm Sunset: to reflect on the day
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Field Notes
"When I was the Forest" When I was the stream, when I was the forest, when I was still the field, when I was every hoof, foot, fin and wing, when I was the sky itself, no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, no one ever wondered was there anything I might need, for there was nothing I could not love. It was when I left all we once were that the agony began, the fear and questions came, and I wept, I wept. And tears I had never known before. So I returned to the river, I returned to the mountains. I asked for their hand in marriage again, I begged—I begged to wed every object and creature, and when they accepted, God was ever present in my arms. And He did not say, “Where have you been?” For then I knew my soul— every soul— has always held Him. -Meister Eckhart
From the Archives
Many times the answers you seek and the solutions you long for will come if you simply take time to just be still.
Read Just Be Still from the archives.
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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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