I am 9 years old Today in Costa Rica with an earthquake

What a week. I am in Costa Rica with torrential rains, thunder and lightening and a half an hour ago we had a 6.0 earthqauke. This week has been a major initiation, getting a rugged head cold, not seeing the sun for 6 days and then the fiascos with trying to phone home.

And that said, today is a really precious day, it is when my new life began. Nine years ago at about exactly the time the earthquake hit my beloved husband Christopher went home to the other side. It has been a wild journey over the last nine years, and I have become less certain and more clear.

Today I honor the complexity of life, of my initiatory path, and thank the angels for bringing me such a beautiful way to learn about love,  loss and resurrection. Because I am still pretty punchy from being sick, I am going to elaborate on the beauty of Christopher another day. I am learning to slow down and let go here in a country where no one power walks.

Circa 1984 Parisian Graffiti in Costa Rica

 

OK, work with me here. I can´t find a way to call the US for under multiple dollars per minute, I am butchering the language and inserting my latent Italian at every turn, and saving the day in this magical verdant valley I have found a stencil graffiti artist that is extraordinary. I wish I could show you  pictures, but I have blissfully left my laptop at home, and so you can see an image from when I was 15 in Paris and the level of detail the aerosol artist possess. The local ones here have that 1980´s punk feel to them with raw powerful women commanding their space and some erotic poses as well. WE LOVE IT as Alee and I would say. {Back in the USA..images added!!!}

I am here studying Spanish in the Orosi Valley in Central Costa Rica. The village is pokey and delightful,  filled with vibrant tropical flowers, huge frogs in my hostel, and beautiful people. Costa Rica is the Switzerland of Central America with no standing army, a 95 percent literacy rate and a standard of living uncommon to their neighboring countries.

A plug for my school. I found Montana Linda in The Lonley Planet, and it is terrific. For $760. I get my own private dorm room for a month, a shared bath, kitchen privileges, and sixty hours of one’on’one Spanish classes. I am very happy with my teacher, and the entire staff is great. Montana Linda is said to be the most affordable school in the country, where costs can be double some of the other Central American countries. I also feel really safe here, and its pretty calm. You even get 2 dog guardians, magical white horses and cats on the roof. I won´t mention the big cockroaches.  http://www.montanalinda.com/

 

I came here after going to Antigua, Guatemala for Semana Santa, their psychedelic Easter festivities. When I was researching this trip before my Oracle of Initiation book overtook every bit of my bandwidth, I read the name of this valley and a potent energetic YES swelled in my heart.

I actually have no idea why I am truly here. I have carried an intuitive knowing for about five years that I need to speak Spanish, and immersion was going to be the only way. My ego self has quite a long list of places I would choose to go before here, but here I am. I have been around the block enough to see a sneaker attack when it’s on its way.

Let me explain. After my husband died in 2002 I went on a seven-year vision quest reclaiming my true self. Horses were the sneaky instigators in that round of my expansion. I fell head over hooves in love with them, and what they actually ended up doing was bringing me back to tha land. They were the carrot that drew me into union with the earth and my creative receptivity. Somehow my lack of interest in Central America will turn out to be some form of life path epiphany.

I am in my first week of being in Orosi, and it is slowly revealing itself to me. I am vacillating between wishing I had a traveling partner and thanking my lucky stars for being alone. Last weekend a group of young missionaries were in the  hostel, and when I went on an adventure with them I noticed how closed the locals were to a rag-tag bunch of backpackers. When I am alone there is a much warmer reception. For me that is the great struggle in my life, my love of the synergistic magic that can occur between us, and my MASSIVE  desire to be alone. So, I sit with one of my many dualities. What a fascinating incarnation this one is.

I got early training for this when I lived in Italy at 20, and those skills and confidence are serving me well. It is such a different experience to be more aware, awake and intuitively plugged in this time. I was a pretty lost young lassy, and this is really a gift to see how I deal with the language and cultural discomforts.

I was reminded last night of how potent music can be to bridge worlds. When I lived in Italy there was an international station that played such a wild mix of music you never knew what was coming. The local pool is next to the Hostel here, and someone was having a birthday shindig. The playlist was steadily Latin dance music until a descent Beatles medley kicked in, and then Double Dutch,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr7QvpHsJBg

Funky Town [the crowd roared], Hurts so Good, a Gary Glitter remake, Credence Clearwater Revival, and then into a long set of Reggaetone. wow. I was sure Peaches and Herb, the Pina Colada song, The Whiz, Bette Davis Eyes, Electric Avenue or Captain and Tenniel were going to be blasting at any moment.

Spanish classes are going well, four of my initial twenty have occurred. As I said above, I can butcher the language well. So, greetings from paradise, where I am slowing down, not driving, cooking in an open air kitchen on a crumbling hot plate, eating hotdogs and other mystery meats, and enjoying the mist covered mountains. Mellissae Lucia