Jungle Camping

I have been wanting to go camping in India since I have been here, twice, but never had the chance and never got around to putting something together. So when I heard that my boyfriend's biker club was planning (ha!) a camping trip in Meghalaya I was ecstatic! Hurrray for camping! As the days led up to the camping weekend our remembrance of the trip started to fade as I was sick the days before we left. Thank goodness for a friend who called the night before to remind us we said we were going, I thought what the hay nature will heal me 'lets go'!

Now we thought one of the best parts about this trip was that we were not planning it (although planning can be fun sometimes), so we shopped for what we needed the next morning, brought our essentials and headed to the meeting point. See the disadvantage about doing a camping/biking trip is that you can't fit much on a motorcycle and you take your chances of rain living in one of the wettest places on earth (it is the beginning of monsoon season by the way). To our luck it started raining upon our arrival putting a 3+ our delay because although we were in a car most of the group were bikes. Rain + Bike = Sucky. As we waited around for our caravan to leave we (my boyfriend, friend, and me) head to buy snakes, water, booze, etc., and realize when we are finished we were left behind without knowing exactly where to go. To our misfortune again after we meet up for lunch we get left behind again - with all the camping equipment? Not the kind of person you want to ditch, no? As our whindy road journey to some unknown spot continues my lunch goes out the window - thanks to not getting over my flu - and we have difficulty in our directions as no one bothered to give them as they ditched us. After several, "where is the road to Shella?" stops we made it to see our group hanging out doing nothing. Oh wait cause we had all the stuff!!!

Our car journey landed us in a very jungly, hawaii, muggy, hot river valley place with our 'planner and guide' coming later at night. We are led by the local guide to a make shift camp spot next to the river - perfect really, cooler with water and away from the village. We set up camp with 5 guys setting up the first tent while I proceed to set up tents alone. We snacked on chips and beer as we awaited the second caravan with dinner and food. Oh but wait nothing was planned so forget about having food on a camping trip!? Our friends in the second group, as they stop for dinner, order chicken noodles all around for those for us who were first. As they start to arrive sometime after 11pm I realize just how much stuff we brought - still almost everything. As night is in full swing the second group fails again to bring firewood. But our local guide to the rescue spares us with enough for a few hours of fire. As a herd of men try to put up a make sift tarp in the rain we sit down to eat our belated dinner. Thank god they also brought a live turkey to cook with the firewood they brought and the utensils (that were left at home)!!! The poor thing won't even be dinner as we have no way of cooking it! But the smells that were coming from our chicken chow - not something you want after you throw up - didn't feel like dinner either. Lul and behold half of the chicken noodles went bad and several of us went without dinner, besides some chips, bananas, and beers. We just have to make it to breakfast.

As we head to bed I have never been so reminded of the beauty and splendor of being outside. And this wasn't like a camping trip at home were there are faucets, toilets, and nice picnic benches. But we had our stools, the wilderness, and a river! Washing my face and hands down at the river never felt so good in my life. After a long hot evening, a balmy rain, and a sicky body, splashing that cold liquid on my face felt like the best thing in the world at that moment. If felt so right, so natural to use the earth that we live upon, no need for faucets toilets and the such we already have everything that we need. We give to nature as it gives back to use in a natural order. Although we went to bed hungry, just looking up at the deep sky with the bright stars and the soft bug noises all around melts worries away. All that is just is.

After being woken up the good old fashioned camping way by the sun with the rest of the outdoors, we discovered just how hot our border village really is - humid and hot at 7am!! Those of us up early looked like zombies sitting around waiting for a small restaurant to open to eat breakfast. When if finally came all it was were fried pancake looking things that were not half as good as real pancakes! Oh but thank god for the beautiful river - swimming by 10am never felt so good. With one of the most peaceful scenes - watching the locals fish in the long wooden canoes. And one of the most entertaining for the locals - the turkey. Oh boy was that a hit in town, what was that weird black, featherly, gobble gobble? Our uncooked, live, no way to eat turkey was the talk of the town. I just wanted to spare it the heat and end its short life, not to mention I was hungry! haha. Despite the fact we had a make shift toilet as well (no trees to hide behind), lack of food, and hot hot heat, it was one of the most extraordinary and beautiful places I've been too. The mountains covered in jungle with the best mangoes ever, surrounded by deep canyons and sharp cliffs everywhere you turn, while milky waterfalls pop out on each bend up the mountain over a shear cliff. Without much climb the mountains look as if they jet up into the sky while at their floor there is miles upon miles of complete flat lands (the border with Bangladesh) with farm land and rivers spreading everywhere at the bottom of the mountains. Meghalaya is full with lush green valleys, mountains, canyons, land, everything! I'll never forget my starved, turkey, river filled camping trip in India. Especially the sunburn that started to form on the way home after two lathers of sunblock!

Next time, food. :)

P.S. There are more pictures on facebook!

Mother Earth

EARTH - HEART

Why do most of us see the Earth separate from us? An entity to manipulate, control, fear, and take from without regard to life, the life that is everywhere on the planet. Where did the disconnection happen, the severing of our umbilical cord to the very life that Earth provides us? Our conscious egos have run away with our profound sense of 'separate then', 'solid mass away from', and a 'self' that is better than. I believe this is not who we truly are, are ego mind is not supposed to be dominate but it wants to, out of power, hunger, greed. We have created these emotional circuits in our brains so when we think of money it gets linked to greed. So what does it take for us to recircuit our brains so that it does not take the money - greed - destruction - money loop?

Mother Earth, isn't there for our fending whenever we please. Why do we treat her so? Who gave us the right and authority to plunder and pillage at will? I dare say our ego minds that remind us that we are superior to everything else. Why does the urgency of the dying ecosystems not get agknowledged? Or is it Igorned or Denied? What happens in 50 years from now if we treat Mother Earth the same way we are now?

Regardless of the fact I may sound 'tree hugging' to some, a 'hippie freak' to others or 'nature-connected' to yet different people, what does that matter if our Earth is collapsing? Should a label of what others think I should be or 'what I sound' like determine the absorption of my writing or that of many many others about the state of the Earth. We have a State of the Union...a State of the State.....but don't we also live on a planet....why not a State of the Earth? What I am saying is whatever 'label' that jumps into your head as you read these words about who I am doesn't matter......what matters is the 'State of the Earth'. I say this not just out of care for myself and my community but the community of the world, that means everyone!! I believe that it is apparent enough that something is seriously wrong with life on Earth, this includes all life forms - microorganisms in the deep blue, creatures that roam land, and us weird looking species but very extraordinary! I would hate to think that we would be the ones to blame for the complete destruction of the planet. We are apart of Earth biologically, physiologically, and spiritually...if you please, and Earth is apart of us!! We have the same make-up the same DNA!! We are directly linked to the makings of everything that lives and breathes on this beautiful planet. "It is perhaps of interest that our human genetic code is constructed by the exact same four nucleotides (complex molecules) as every other form of life on the planet. At the level of our DNA, we are related to the birds, reptiles, amphibians, other mammals, and even the plant life. From a purely biological perspective, we human beings are our one species-specific mutation of earth's genetic possibility." - Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.

Is it any wonder that when we destroy or harm certain ecosystems, part of the result is our own harm? Our own depletion of life? Nuclear testing in the Pacific created 'grape babies' within the some of the indigenous population in the Pacific islands that were thought to have been out of the radiation zone. The contamination of some water systems near factories and electirc plants created all kind of health problems including but not exclusive to cancer. The depletion of the ozone layer has left lands once fertile arid with desertification, increasing migration and lack of food. Sporadic weather conditions throughout the world and the thawing of the ice caps and glaciers have disrupt our crops and local ecosystems. The BP oil spill where 50% of the oil still remains floating on the surface and floor of the Gulf of Mexico have put fishers out of jobs and the main side effects of the spill have yet to be seen in the coming decades.....Shall I say more? What we do to the Earth whether it is in our backyard or not effects us in some way, and greater yet some destruction is effecting all of us at the same time - the burning of the ozone.

Now I am not claiming to be Ms. Earth Model for the way in which we should life for the betterment of ourselves -I still fly on airplanes, create bad garbage, and probably buy things without knowing that in making that product the Earth was being compromised in some way. Shifting our lives to totally 'green living' as many call it is, oh shocking, not the way either...well at least not at the moment. When was the last time we went outside and just stood in the presence of nature, drawing in our surroundings without regard to what is going to happen next or what just happened? When we have really listened to the birds songs, feel the wind on our skin, touch the dirt and know I am connected to nature in a deep biological sense? Caring and loving the Earth is a lot different then 'green living'. First genuine connections with the mother we have forgotten, then second do what we feel is best in taking care of that life force we are linked to. We will each discover our own ways of protecting and acknowledging the Earth in which helped give us life. If we each protect and admire our own ecosystems then no need to worry about the rest of this large planet! We will be living Earth based and aware lives....!

Take a moment, step out side, and just breathe in the air! See how you feel!

Check it out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights

One With Jesus

Blogging…..I have decided to start again, for the time being J. You know at least for now. Including everything…

‘Being’ a Christian is not important….if someone asks. It is just a label to put the person neatly and orderly in a box so that that person can relate to them. I am not a Christian because labels are not what I want to define myself as. I want to be known by my actions who ‘I AM’ not by my label. Known for kindness, love, happiness, peaceful, caring, powerful, enlightened, joyous, sensory, wise, welcoming, non-judgmental, alive, free, and beautiful, ‘being’, and God filled….and the like, this is what I want people to know. Aren’t all these things more God like than a label like Christian, it is exclusive not inclusive and if that is the case I am Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Sikh, Animist, and everything in between. If I place one label on myself I’ll place all labels then because we are all part of the same family, we are all one, all God like with the ability to be present in any religion, therefore I am all or none at all. Maybe it is escapism but I would rather escape a label than be imbedded in it. I think God wants us to be free not contained to one aspect of God. That is not to say we have to reject religion and not practice what we believe, we can and we should fully enjoy it, but practice our faith and beliefs while accepting others as well, this is living in harmony with our differences allowing us to grow together not separated. Let our differences be a bond and love that keeps us together.

I want to be whole, attuned, silent, still, present, alive, and now. All these things are more important to me than a label, but Jesus is my inspiration my guide my master to enlightenment, just like the Buddha. I feel closer to the real Jesus than ever before. I am starting to open up to the true meanings of his life and goals for us, not a cross with blood and sins, he is trying to lead us away from a different sin: the illusion of our mind, reality and form so we can get onto the path of pure ‘Being’ one with him and God. How sad that Christianity has gotten it wrong and became something totally different than what it was 2,000 years ago. Lets redeem the Jesus within Christianity, set him free…..Follow the true ways not the disillusioned religious ways unless they point to the real Jesus. I want to be more like him than anyone else, one with Jesus.