I am just getting over a cold that kept me resting for the last couple of days. We have been very fortunate to have an entire apartment to ourselves on the top floor of a building with a great view.
I say fortunate instead of lucky because we were reminded by one of Manuela's friends that luck is chance and fortune is what comes back to you. Through Jesse, a friend of Amani's, we have come to meet Maneula our host.
She speaks perfect English (lived in CA)
but is still very patient with our continued attempts in Spanish
. With Manu we have shared our first Argentinian steak (lomo), wine (Malbec/Shiraz), Matte
(traditional tea served in a gourd and shared in a circle),and a Disco (17 and up smoking like chimneys
) to name a few of our experiences. She is great
. As I write we are on a bus headed to La Chosa, a farm that Manuela's cousin Cala suggested we see and perhaps volunteer with. Cala is a waldorf student (as was I) and has recently returned from an International Youth Conference in Dornach, Switzerland, where 500 Waldorf students from all over the world gathered to meet and discuss various current topics. It is continually suprising to meet other people with similar alternative upbringings. There is even a Biodynamic farm (I grew up on a Biodynamic farm in NY) in Patagonia that we have come to learn about and will surely volunteer at. It seems people all over the World are searching for a way of living in balance with the Earth; an alternative to the path of the "Mainstream" "Takers."
The direction toward a lifestyle of excess that continues to consume our realities (especially in USA) has led to this place in time where we are already running out of water, among many other essential resources. When our watersheds become chemically-soaked cespools contaminating the Total Water Cycle, we are a plague on the earth; our source of existence. As much as this might sound pessimistically apocalyptical (like the "Matrix"), I belive the fact that more people (4million) on this earth die from contaminated water than all of the illnesses and wars combined is just one more sign of the total pollution of our environment. Until recently I have failed to see and understand these facts all
around us. I have only just begun my search to better understand these worlds within worldsworld's, and their collective Zeitgeist. Finding ways to live without a destructive, polluting footprint is one of our goals as well, and the reason for volunteering on Eco-minded farms.
The debilitating effects of humans on this earth have set a disasterous trajectory that together with focused intention we can counteract with a holistic, sustainable network of local measures. Taking steps ranging from Organic/Biodynamic Farming to using energy efficient fixtures or irrigating with graywater, we can have a positive effect---a Conscious-Movement starting in the Mind that gives purpose to the hand to recreate the land. A mind that comes to understand its' body's place in the Global Community, feeling the tension of the web connecting everything to this Earth and eachother.
Like the vibrations of a fly's wings In a spider web, our thoughts ripple through tense tendrils of maluable Life.
Through all of these jumbled words that I use to try and understand my thoughts, the most important thing to me is to make a positive impact. To be wherever I am and remain positive in action and attitude is something that I will strive for. Perhaps with others actions those small vibrations can help create something tangible, or at least strengthen the waves as they grow.
Alec & Amani
-- Expanding Experience through every Step...
No comments:
Post a Comment