1-11-11

I woke up early this morning in a funk. I knew that I didn’t want it to continue so I got out of bed with a plan to slip away for some alone time. About 5 minutes later, after some sound negotiating, I left the room with Lily and Rosy in tow... already things were not going according to plan.

We worked out that I would give them money and they would buy themselves breakfast while I wrote in my journal. I made it clear that I needed space and alone time.

While I was ordering their breakfast they played on the beach with some town dogs. Wait... this wasn’t the plan!

I like dog culture here in Mexico, perhaps because by their standards we are very responsible dog owners. Here if you own a dog you collar it and let it roam, I believe it take a village to raise a dog (any of you who have seen Dotty or Dixie wandering town KNOW what I am talking about!) My kids being very used to this mentality of dog ownership did their part, while waiting for their fruit platter, to protect a tiny mangy poodle from a much larger male dog who had taken a liking to her.

When breakfast came I went to find the girls... ya, the plan had basically disintegrated but I was getting some alone time so I didn’t sweat it. I am getting used to plans changing, they seem to change hourly lately.

Breakfast lasted about 2 hours, I doodled, talked with our very cute waiter in my ever increasing vocabulary of Spanglish. During the meal I watched the town wake up. We have arrived at a very exciting time. Just as the winter holiday tourists are leaving, town is filling with pro surfers and spectator. We had no idea upon arrival that we were to be smack dab in the middle of a pro surf event.

And just as we were about to leave Sayulita we were asked if we would volunteer at the event.

Since we are travelling to experience the unexpected opportunities which the Universe places in our way we said... hmmm....HECK YA!! To hang out with pro surfers, get a look behind the scenes at a real live surf event, how cool is that? We are still leaving Sayulita though. The Event is held in the neighbouring artist community of San Francisco, known locally as San Pancho.

While I am excited about this change in plans I have mixed feeling about not getting on the road. I am eager to move towards Chiapas. I love the beach and surfing but there is something deeper that pulls. I am hungry to go feel the ruins, to meet the Mayan people in the land where their culture still permeates.

There is also an even stronger pull to leave Nayarit. I want to distance myself from the temptation of attending the 7:7:7:7 gathering, an event I planned to attend way back in November.

It seemed perfect back then, this gathering based on principals and numbers that make so much sense to me. It was my one scheduled stop on the way to Chiapas. I still feel called to attend but there is a major obstacle to following this call, and for the first time in a long time I don’t know that I can share it here on the blog. This is a curious thing that I have noticed lately, that I feel reluctant to share fully here. It is the reason I haven’t posted in a while. I don’t like it.

As for whether I will be attending the gathering, I don’t have an answer yet. I am sure late registration won't be an issue. It isn’t happening for nearly 2 weeks so I don’t have to know yet. For now we have a surf competition to help make happen... I never would have imagined... isn’t it great how things don’t always go as planned?

Day 3 Meditation- Flakes

My classmates are flakes. If any of you are reading this know that last sentence was made with love from a fellow flake.

I was to teach my class today. Enact what we at Tamalpa call a “score”, there is an explanation of what this is in the side bar to your right. I had a GREAT score planned. In the afternoon K.D. was doing her score, her plan was to get us celebrating our Goddesses selves (our class is all womyn, just worked out that way). We ended up having a womyns circle which was beautiful and exactly what we needed. I knew her score and was going to piggyback on it. My plan was to take them to the California Academy of Natural Sciences for the weekly Nightlife event. The whole museum becomes a large low key night club. It is a 21+ event where there are bars set up around the museum alongside the aquarium and planetarium. There is DJed music and dancing. My score was to have them experience the place for a half and hour, then they were to open up the first of three instruction cards. First said:

“Notice how you have been/are making eye contact with others.”

Then in half an hour they would open the second note to find:

“Make a change, any change to how you are making eye contact.”

Then half an hour later.

“Take any theme, idea, noticing or awareness which arose within the experience of the last hour and let it inform your movement on the dance floor.”

The idea was to explicitly get them noticing their level of eye contact and eye contact habits. I chose this because I have learned a lot from observing my eye contact in the last couple of years. I was also being a bit sneaky with the more hidden intention of getting us all out dancing and relaxing together as a group, to have fun. This event at the museum is very accessible, lots of different ages, lots of different kind of folk, quite diverse. I choose it because I wanted a place which would not be confrontational but still exciting.

I understand why nobody could come. We all seem to be really full these days, in many ways. I love my classmates, they are an amazing group of womyn. Maybe I can convince them all to come out some other time? I hope so...what a lovely bunch of adorable, caring, supportive, sensitive, artistic, intuitive flakes we all are.

“Where do you like to hang out and relax?” is the question in 12 days journal #277