South America

This morning after my morning chores (which included changing the urine container for the first time - a little ick, but not as bad as I expected), I took the time to make a cup of cocoa. Some of you might know that last month I had the opportunity to spend 2 weeks in Guatemala learning about the Mayan Cosmovision and learning to facilitate cocoa ceremony from Izabel & Izaias Perez, healers, teachers and keepers of the ancient Mayan wisdom traditions. This training which usually draws little more than a handful of people, was the largest they had ever done. 35 students from various places around the global gathered in the tiny village of San Marcos on the shores of Lake Atitlan, about 3.5 hours from Guatemala City. (San Marcos turned out to be a surprisingly interesting place, but I'll have to tell you more about that another time.)

I had a lot of reservations about going to this training. First and foremost I am not Mayan, which raised a lot of questions for me. Is it appropriate for me to be learning this sacred tradition? If I decided to put into practice what I've learned is it a betrayal of my own culture in some way? Is it cultural misappropriation for me to participate in and share these traditions? I expressed these concerns with to both my teachers and my friend Ixchel who invited me to take the course with her.

We are living at an interesting time in history. Not only do we have the gift of increased global connectedness, it's also the case that now more that any other time in history that I'm aware of, that the wisdom keepers from indigenous populations around the world are beginning to open up and share their teachings. Maybe it's more true that 'we' as a global community have reached a greater level of respect and appreciation for indigenous cultures, which allows for this greater openness.

One of the things I appreciated most about the training was the constant reminder that everything is sacred - the trees, the insects, the land, the lake, the mountains, the volcanos, the person sharing this tiny house with me :)... In our training and in the everyday life of my teachers, every day is a ceremony. I have a tricky past with ceremony and ritual. Mostly in my life I've avoided and resisted it. In my desire not to conform or participate mindlessly in things that don't make sense to me I've opted out, even to the point of not having a wedding ceremony. I'm finding more and more in my life though, an inner call toward ceremony. This was one of the things that drew me to this course.

So all of that is back story for this morning's cup of cocoa. My morning started off a little off kilter and my assigned chores definitely didn't help : ). Instead of pushing into the day with all of the things that needed to be done I took a pause and asked what was needed. And what a blessing it was to have cocoa.

Like meditation the ceremony begins with intention and the primary intention is to engage the presence of love within and around us all the times. As I grind the cocoa I go back in my mind to fields where the cocoa I am using was grown. We did a ceremony there beneath the trees during my training. I give thanks for families we met that tend the trees, pick the cocoa when it's ready, and prepare the seeds for fermentation. I give thanks for the women who sorted, roasted and shelled the seeds by hand. Even though I'm only preparing cocoa for me (Sam was off to the hardware store) every step is taken with love and gratitude. I recognized in this process how much more care I put into things I do for others relative to things I do just for myself. I felt really good take sure care just for me.

When finished preparing the cocoa, I offer a prayer before drinking, taking a moment to be grateful for the sacredness of the moment and for this amazing opportunity I have to be at the start of a new journey. I gave thanks for my parents, my children, my siblings and all of my family and friends. For my grandmother who inspired and passed down the love of travel to 3 generations of journeyers. I pray for success and wellbeing and abundance for each my children, and all of the young people in my life. I pray for health, wellbeing and ease for my parents. I pray blessing for the beautiful country of Chile and for the Chilean people. And I prayed for those we have met and will met along our journey. I pray that in this 120 sqft of living space Sam and I learn to be sweeter and sweeter to one another. And I pray for myself, for my continued health, for greater clarity, vision, and purpose and for enhanced language learning abilities fast (haha).

With all those intentions in my cocoa I drank. It was delicious and exactly what I needed to get my day moving in the right direction. After I finished I looked up today's Nahual, the energy of the day according to the Mayan calendar (usually done before the cocoa, but better later than never). Today is K'at, the day of the spider, the day of connectedness, the day to weave the web of life, to capture your dreams, a day of fertility and abundance, a day to remember the ancestors. Maybe it was the energy of K'at that called me to ceremony.

(Above are some pics from my Guatemala trip.)Read more