The Other Way

I am so exhausted that I find it hard to write. I have been traveling all day and wearing a mask for more than 10 hours, barely able to breath. I got out of bed at 430AM in Philadelphia, rushed to the airport, and have been going ever since. Here, in CR, it is only 8PM, but my body knows it is really 10. I have a choice...to try to stay up until my normal bedtime or to just go to bed right now and possibly wake up in the middle of the night. That really isn’t a choice for me.

So here I am, typing, trying to fill up my time. I’m staying in a very large tent with a king sized bed and all the amenities but no bathroom, and not looking forward to a trip in the middle of the night to a bathroom that is far, far away. It’s not cold, but it’s dark and rainy depending on one's timing. The tent is pleasant, almost luxurious for one person, but who wants to go out into the night to a bathroom at 4 in the morning? I sure don't, but there is no choice for me. Despite the discomfort, I fall into the routine. I get used to it.

My days become filled with practicing massage as I expected, since I am here for a Medical Massage Class, and I’m gathering quite a bit of information. We often start in the morning and continue in the afternoon. During the class in the afternoon it rains and gets cooler. We have to close all the doors and large picture windows, and turn off the ceiling fans as the clouds move in and we find ourselves, sometimes, engulfed in a cloud. I’m glad I have a light jacket with me. Sometimes I wear it while doing massages.

I find that I am well prepared for the rainy season here in Costa Rica, in fact, I thought the downpour would be heavier and brought more clothing than I needed. The weather seems to have changed just a bit. It is still raining hard, often, but not as much as before. Around this time it would rain almost 12 or 13 hours a day, now it only rains about 5 or 6.

There is just something about the rain falling down and cleaning the Earth, especially in the tropics. It takes away the heat and makes everything quiet and cool. The trees, the foliage, views looking out from the mountain tops over the cities located in the central valleys seem to drain one of all tension and allow one to rest. I think the thing I like most about Costa Rica, and that I liked when I lived here, was the climate. Several months of dry season with no rain that would often, when you got tired of all of the heat and sun, shift to the rainy season.

The place is always green, palm trees, almond trees, long grasses, rainforests with many tropical plants that you would only find in a flower pot perched on a window sill in the US all stand out reaching upward to form a lovely canopy in the many rainforests and the patches of greenery that could be, had they been allowed to grow bigger.

There are many issues in Costa Rica like in any nation struggling to develop. Depending on where one lives, there is a lot of noise, a lot of traffic, a lot of pollution. On top of all of this there is a lot of wildlife and many dogs that make noise throughout the night. Still, there is a feeling of tranquility that I feel here that I don’t feel in the US. I think it may be because of the palpable feeling of striving and division that exists in the US now, and the underlying feeling of lack that has been drummed into us throughout our lifetimes. It seems that we must constantly prove that we have a right to live.

In Costa Rica the milieu is one of striving for green energy, education of the masses, and providing healthcare for everyone. They want to strengthen the economy for the welfare of the people. In the US the milieu is one of consumption. Success and proof of worth comes not from promoting the general welfare, but from having power over others, or at least someone or something, even if it is a dog. We learn to compete at a very young age. We are constantly told that we are worthless unless we perform better than others, or have more power than others. Even then commercials are constantly targeting us telling us about all of our faults and saying that if we buy their products we will be ok, if for just a few moments.

Our country strives for world dominance. It manufactures weapons and sells weapons all around the world that bring about death. That feeling of violence, greed, self hatred, and hunger for power over is the atmosphere in which we live. It is our ocean and we swim in it and breathe it like fish, never realizing that the feelings of sadness, shame, anger, and depression are woven into the fabric of the country in which we live and are not due to personal faults.

When one leaves the country though, and visits a country more interested in improving the quality of life for all of its citizens one can feel the difference. Long ago I went to live in Costa Rica. For the first time in my life I felt at peace. At first I was disturbed. I was trying to push as hard as I could to perform and accomplish things. They don’t do that in Costa Rica. When I got used to their focus and their pace of life the place felt like paradise.

Even in the grungy cities, in downtown Alajuela, which is the biggest district in the country, one can feel a sense of tranquility. It’s not that people aren’t working hard and striving for things, or they aren’t ambitious, it is that they have more to their lives than having to prove they are great. Greatness means supporting one’s family and community, not gathering up a lot of money just to have a lot of money. I miss that when I am in the US.

Now I am living in the rat race again in the US. It is like the movie Hunger Game where there is plenty to go around, but the leaders have all of us running and competing to get more than we can use instead of sharing what we have so everyone has what they need. People who are clear and sensitive are starting to feel this in the colonial nations and a cry is going up all over the world. Something has to change.

Just by being in Costa Rica for one week I can feel a shift. The first day I got back I felt the shift. I felt relaxed and I felt the same tranquility that I had felt for years before returning to the US. I must say that I prefer Costa Rica.

I sit on the porch of the Ananda Hall in Pura Vida Yoga Retreat Center and Spa. I am looking out over the valley of the city of San Jose, the largest city in Costa Rica. The sky is clear. Clouds seem to hang motionlessly over the city. Beyond the city I can see pale blue mountains rising up to meet the horizon. Birds streak pass, every so often. Despite the sounds of wildlife there is an internal silence.

The clouds begin to roll in. Large raindrops pour striking the tin roof. The cool winds rise up. I look. I decided to pull out my kindle and read. As I sit there just doing nothing, the whole world seems good. I have experienced Pura Vida, pure life again. And I am at home.