another update from oaxaca
Saludos a todos,
So how does a rambling man like me pass two months in Oaxaca? I am glad you asked. my normal day is quite simple.
I like to get up early do my daily toilet ritual and then sit quietly for about 30 minutes. I have a little relicario (shrine) in my room. I have the little wooden statue of buddha gifted to me by Angela in Vienna back in 2006, and I arrange a group of stones around him. i gathered the stones from around here, and I kind of do this everywhere i go where i stay more than a week, these last few years...Behind the buddha I have a little clay bowl which I have filled with soft earth and use as an incense burner and light a jah stick for the boddhisatva of compassion to summon her to my room before I sit. Now I am ready to face the day.
I go out to the kitchen area that the 7 renters here share and make coffee and toast with homemade bread. I have lately been making bread with Carsten, my Danish travelling buddy who is also staying here. He has been to more countries than I have. It is good to be able to talk to an old roadie, because we can relate our experiences well together. He showed me a nice easy method for making a yeast bread that is about 35%whole wheat flour and 65% white. the only other ingredients i use are water yeast salt and a little sugar. I have been lately adding some sesame seeds and/or coriander seeds for taste and crunch. I make 2 oaaves using about a kilo of flour. it lasts me about a 5 days or a week after I share out one loaf with the other folks who are staying here.
Carsten and I sit in the garden and take coffee and peanut butter and mermalada toast sandwiches for breakfast. sometimes I make egg and cheese and veggie omelets or eat left overs from the night before. Other travellers who stay here join up with us and we chat a while. There is a great herb garden here and I trim the basil plants daily. I clip off the flowering buds with a scissor and dry them in the sun. i cook with the fresh leaves.
there is a cement hand laundry sink in the back and I wash my socks and other clothes almost daily. I have so few things that I have to do it often, because otherwise everything is dirty! It only takes a few minutes and then I hang them in the sun to dry. All of it is always dry by 4. It has only once rained here so far in the 6 weeks I have been here. I dont think it has ever snowed here in history. it is usually in the 20s each day (60-80american). I go to the market and return and that is the morning.
My afternoon routine is not so different from my morning routine. I often take a long walk or bicylce ride either by myself or with Carsi. I usually meditate in the afternoon and take tea at about 4pm and read or take a siesta. Then I prepare some food and hang out with the other travellers and talk about how we all feel about the world.
Most of us are rather removed from the everyday realities of the what one might call the real world (Babylon). We dont care much about the economy or the newest hollwood movie or What Tom Cruz told Larry King about global warming.The newest diet book by Rachel Ray. The newest spring fashions to hit the malls. The latest advancements in Harley Davidson technology or Whether Al queida is going to land on the moon. Rush Limbaughs sentiments on the Haiti situation! All such silliness.
I think of the stuff I used to feel was so important. hell, I have not recieved a ltter or checked a mailbox in over 6 years now! Get an education. Get a good "meaningful" job. Well truth is, the only reason most any of us go to university is so we can earn more money than we need. More than than our neighbors. So we can buy christmas presents for people who dont need anything except a giant dumpster to throw away all their extra stuff in. $20 dollar bottles of wine, trademark name blue jeans...Oh really? and yet all that stuff once seemed like the most important thing in the world to me. I needed that stuff because I was so special. I was so important. I was so good at my job. My opinion mattered. Give me a break!!
I am staying in a 100square meter (300square foot) room. It has two light bulbs hanging from the cieling. It has a cement floor. two of my windows are covered up in plywood. to close the door, I have a bent nail that I put in an aluminum hasp. I have no heater. No air conditioner. No carpet. No pictures on the wall. No stereo. A toilet without a seat. Yet the truth is, I live in a state of luxury undreamed of by more than half the worlds population! I can make popcorn anytime I want! no worries mate! I am so stress free. I am so free of worry. I am absolutely free to go anywhere I wish anytime I want to get up and leave. I am blessed by the gods.
Andd so I will be going on an aovernight bus to guatemala on 30 January. i should arrive in Tapachula (10km from the border) at about 9am. I hope to get to Lake Ätitlan about 3 or 4 in the afternoon on 31 january. the lake is a very special place. sacred to ancient indigenous pseoples and also to the new agers of the modern world! i was there in 2004 and i am looking forward to my return.
So That is that... the rest is silence except of course for a couple of quotes from some rather wise folks...
Peace and love to all of you.
robert
"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."Henry David Thoreau
"Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it." Baltasar Gracian
"If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?" TS Eliot
So how does a rambling man like me pass two months in Oaxaca? I am glad you asked. my normal day is quite simple.
I like to get up early do my daily toilet ritual and then sit quietly for about 30 minutes. I have a little relicario (shrine) in my room. I have the little wooden statue of buddha gifted to me by Angela in Vienna back in 2006, and I arrange a group of stones around him. i gathered the stones from around here, and I kind of do this everywhere i go where i stay more than a week, these last few years...Behind the buddha I have a little clay bowl which I have filled with soft earth and use as an incense burner and light a jah stick for the boddhisatva of compassion to summon her to my room before I sit. Now I am ready to face the day.
I go out to the kitchen area that the 7 renters here share and make coffee and toast with homemade bread. I have lately been making bread with Carsten, my Danish travelling buddy who is also staying here. He has been to more countries than I have. It is good to be able to talk to an old roadie, because we can relate our experiences well together. He showed me a nice easy method for making a yeast bread that is about 35%whole wheat flour and 65% white. the only other ingredients i use are water yeast salt and a little sugar. I have been lately adding some sesame seeds and/or coriander seeds for taste and crunch. I make 2 oaaves using about a kilo of flour. it lasts me about a 5 days or a week after I share out one loaf with the other folks who are staying here.
Carsten and I sit in the garden and take coffee and peanut butter and mermalada toast sandwiches for breakfast. sometimes I make egg and cheese and veggie omelets or eat left overs from the night before. Other travellers who stay here join up with us and we chat a while. There is a great herb garden here and I trim the basil plants daily. I clip off the flowering buds with a scissor and dry them in the sun. i cook with the fresh leaves.
there is a cement hand laundry sink in the back and I wash my socks and other clothes almost daily. I have so few things that I have to do it often, because otherwise everything is dirty! It only takes a few minutes and then I hang them in the sun to dry. All of it is always dry by 4. It has only once rained here so far in the 6 weeks I have been here. I dont think it has ever snowed here in history. it is usually in the 20s each day (60-80american). I go to the market and return and that is the morning.
My afternoon routine is not so different from my morning routine. I often take a long walk or bicylce ride either by myself or with Carsi. I usually meditate in the afternoon and take tea at about 4pm and read or take a siesta. Then I prepare some food and hang out with the other travellers and talk about how we all feel about the world.
Most of us are rather removed from the everyday realities of the what one might call the real world (Babylon). We dont care much about the economy or the newest hollwood movie or What Tom Cruz told Larry King about global warming.The newest diet book by Rachel Ray. The newest spring fashions to hit the malls. The latest advancements in Harley Davidson technology or Whether Al queida is going to land on the moon. Rush Limbaughs sentiments on the Haiti situation! All such silliness.
I think of the stuff I used to feel was so important. hell, I have not recieved a ltter or checked a mailbox in over 6 years now! Get an education. Get a good "meaningful" job. Well truth is, the only reason most any of us go to university is so we can earn more money than we need. More than than our neighbors. So we can buy christmas presents for people who dont need anything except a giant dumpster to throw away all their extra stuff in. $20 dollar bottles of wine, trademark name blue jeans...Oh really? and yet all that stuff once seemed like the most important thing in the world to me. I needed that stuff because I was so special. I was so important. I was so good at my job. My opinion mattered. Give me a break!!
I am staying in a 100square meter (300square foot) room. It has two light bulbs hanging from the cieling. It has a cement floor. two of my windows are covered up in plywood. to close the door, I have a bent nail that I put in an aluminum hasp. I have no heater. No air conditioner. No carpet. No pictures on the wall. No stereo. A toilet without a seat. Yet the truth is, I live in a state of luxury undreamed of by more than half the worlds population! I can make popcorn anytime I want! no worries mate! I am so stress free. I am so free of worry. I am absolutely free to go anywhere I wish anytime I want to get up and leave. I am blessed by the gods.
Andd so I will be going on an aovernight bus to guatemala on 30 January. i should arrive in Tapachula (10km from the border) at about 9am. I hope to get to Lake Ätitlan about 3 or 4 in the afternoon on 31 january. the lake is a very special place. sacred to ancient indigenous pseoples and also to the new agers of the modern world! i was there in 2004 and i am looking forward to my return.
So That is that... the rest is silence except of course for a couple of quotes from some rather wise folks...
Peace and love to all of you.
robert
"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."Henry David Thoreau
"Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it." Baltasar Gracian
"If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?" TS Eliot
posted by Rambling Robert | 10:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home