International Travelers

I just got back, a week ago, from beautiful Costa Rica. My kids and I went with another family and had the most relaxing vacation ever. I actually started and finished a book on this trip; "The Life of Pi." I found the book very engaging but hated the ending. Anyone else read it?

We were expecting many mosquito encounters, but they ended up being bery minimal. A nice breeze for the majority of our stay probably kept them at bay. This doesn't mean that we didn't have our fair share of creature encounters. The days were calm and pleasant but each night somehting different would happen. Big crabs on interior staircases, supersized flying beatles that looked suspiciously like cockroaches, large lizards sharing our rooms, huge tarantula sized spiders in the bathroom, and the cutest little baby scorpion in my bed. Many of these happenings were puntuated with startled screams followed by nervous laughter.

We were on the Caribean side of the country, almost in Panama. The town of Manzanillo and surrounding areas have a distinctly African/Jamaican feel. The food at the local restaraunt was fantastically delicious. The ocean was the perfect temperature for swimming, snorkling, and just hanging out in. The jungle came right to the edge of the beach. It was like living in the Swiss Family Robinson movie.

We did a Canopy tour, aslo known as zip lining, and had a blast. Our handsome guide, Rodrigo, gave us a lot of information on the area and it's plant life that was facinating.

Besides a quick trip to Victoria, British Columbia as a kid, I had never traveled outside the United States so I guess the kids and I are now jet setters! We made big progress on our bug/reptile tolerance therapy program and have planned a 7 day family cruise to Puerta Vallarta in April to commerate my parents 50th wedding aniversay. I'm alternately looking forward to and dreading this trip. But like my older sister said when talking me into this "This is probbly the last family vacation we'll ever take together." She's right, but like I've heard said "Be careful what you wish for cause you might just get it."

It's great to be back!

Birds, Balloons, and People

I was looking back at some of my posts and saw my short list of things I wanted to write about that happened during one trip to Trader Joes. First, the bird who wouln't move.

What's it with me a birds in the last yeat and a half. I keep having these wonderful bird encounters. The very latest was the last post, but about two weeks ago I was driving along and noticed a Bird in the road in my lane. No big deal, it'll fly away when I get closer, they always do...O.K. I'll slow down to give it a bit more time.... O.K. there's no one about to rear end me, I guess I'll stop....Go ahead, fly off now... Fine, I'll just go around you then...I get all the way around it and then it flys off. Random encounter? Who knows?

What's the deal with kids and balloons. Saw two kids leaving TJ's holding their helium balloons with such reverence. The checker said most kids were like this. The woman in front of me said it broke kids hearts when the balloons escaped.

This remeinded me of the time my oldest was about 4 and got a ballon at a carnival. It wasn't tied on well and when it floated off you would have thought the world was coming to an end. He cried so hard and wouldn't let us get him another one. We promised that we would do a better job securing it but no, the pain was too intense. He refused balloons from that time on always getting this wild, scared look in his eye when he declined.

He's now 16 and he still remembers losing that balloon. So what's the reason behind this? Do balloons represent something more significant that rubber and air? Is there something in the psyche of children that relates to balloons at some deep emotional level? Again, who knows?

As I was leaving TJs that same day I saw a man and young girl in the parking lot. The girl was standing on the front of the cart holding on to the sides. The man, I assume her father, was running and pushing the shopping cart then hopping on the back holding on to the handle. They sailed along like this for quite a way.

This amused me cause I had never experienced anyone other than myself do this. I'm sure it happens quite frequently but I just hadn't seen it. It looked just as fun watching it as it does doing it. When I used to do this it felt kind of wild, playful and free and just a little bit of that "I'm breaking the rules" feeling. Of course the element of danger played a part. It always got a good response from my kids. It was like we were all on the same level for those few seconds. Just a few kids hanging out having fun and adventure together. Or a least some kids with their crazy Mom. It was even better when someone would look at us like we were nuts. They would be much too civilized to do this.

Leaving Thursday for Costa Rica with my crazy kids. I hope to have some good stories to tell upon my return.

Fly Communication

O.K. I'll say right off the bat that this is going to seem weird. I'm not sure I trust myself on this. Could have been a complete coinsidence.

I was feeling pretty unsettled about the Hurricane disaster. I decided to go to a special place to pray. It's called "Dome Rock" and it's a short walk up the road to a trail that leads to the top of this huge granite hill. I go there fairly often and have had interesting emotional and spiritual experiences there.

I prayed with tobacco in the usual way and then sat down to just be still. I noticed after 15 minutes or so that I had not seen any birds. This place has an amazing panoramic view and there always seems to be Ravens, Hawks, etc. I amused myself saying the birds must all have the day off; kind of like Labor Day.

There was this one, and only one, very persistant fly. It kept flying around and landing on my feet and legs. I kept brushing it off but it kept coming back. It landed a couple of feet away and I looked at it and said in my mind, "If you want to talk to me you'll have to crawl up on my hand." I put my hand down and it immediatly walked over and got on my hand.

I lifted up the fly to eye level and thought "What is it you want to tell me?" I repeated this thought several times. Nothing came back. I then started to really look at this fly and the amazing details about it. It had bright orange eyes, a grey and black striped body, delicate wings, the same bright orange color on it's butt. The legs were midnight black and they moved in this incredible way. The fly seemed to be modeling for me, turning around so I could admire every part of it. Then this thought popped in my head. "If you can admire and accept me (the fly) then nature will do the same for you."

I know, weird huh? But then the fly flew away and this wooshing sound came over my head. I looked around and saw nothing but this repeated several more times before I realized that this big flock of birds were swooping down on me.

I'm not sure what they are called but I sometimes see them chasing huge Hawks four times there size. They have this super cool shape to their wings, real curvy. They continued doing this for about 5-10 minutes. I realized after a bit that I was sitting there with my jaw totally dropped open. I didn't feel like I was being attacked, more like they were playing with me. They would get to within a few feet and soar off.

Was this the example of nature accepting and admiring me? I'm not sure, but the timing was pretty incredible. I don't know if this has any earth shattering relavance but I might meditate on this and see if anything presents itself.

Knd of interesting though, don't ya think?