Thin Places

I stumbled upon this article from the NYT,

and love that that feeling of transcendent places,

wherever they may be,

has a name.

Thin Places,

where the distance between heaven and earth is thinner.

Where are your thin places?

I agree that Powell Bookstore in Portland, OR is one for sure.

You can lose yourself in time there, and I feel like books find you there.

 Right, Erica? Michael?

Camp Rutledge in Rutledge, Georgia

 is an unlikely, red clay holy place

where people pull heaven a little closer.

Photo: From http://www.peachtreepres.org/StudentsTripsHigh.aspx?ID=129

The Taj Mahal is a place that doesn't falter under the weight of expectations.

It really is as peaceful 

and as beautiful as you hope.

And I'm hoping that Osho Hall,

where we have our silent meditations

will become thinner and thinner as the week progresses.

Photo: http://pachamama.com/meditation.asp

So tell me, what are your thin places??

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A pilgrimage may be to a place with personal memories,

or a holy place where for generations people have prayed and sought God.

Everyone's starting point

and journey

is different,

inside- and outwardly.

-Celtic Daily Prayer

Hippie Camp

Whoa, so sorry for that last gross post!

Also, did we all know that w-h-o-a is the proper spelling?

Even if it is, I still don't like it.

Give me woah, any day. 

If I'm trying to calm a bucking bronco, I want the 'h' to be on the end of my woah.

Just saying.

So, I'm feeling much better, thank you.

And have now moved on from the tree house to...

well, another tree house.

That's right,

I've checked in at hippie camp for the next 10 days.

 It's a beautiful place called

PachaMama

(which means Mother Earth)

nestled up in the mountains over the beaches I was just staying at.

So far the weekend has been just checking in,

finding out where my cabin is,

making new camp friends (and just like in junior high, they don't wear deodorant!),

and getting a tour from my Pachamiga.

The real activity gets going tomorrow.

Instead of campfire singalongs and archery, 

however,

we have daily yoga and silent meditation.

Although there are some campfire drum circles...

So, here's a little photo tour of my new digs:

Welcome center! Campers moving in and out this weekend.

I'm in the Racoon cabins! 

Woohoo! Racoon #1.

My treehouse.  So far I've only seen one bat in my cabin, but no racoons.

My shower, which, although it doesn't look like much, is honest to god the most amazing shower I've ever encountered.  High-pressure, cold water during the hot, dry Costa Rican season is like nectar from the gods.

Meal schedule!

Mess hall!  Kind of the most beautiful mess hall ever!

Complete with cushions, because obviously the tables are the low ones you have to sit on the floor for.  And you have to take off your shoes.

Wild Treats Raw Food and Smoothie Bar if you need a fix in between meal times.  I need one of these in my life. Forever.

What? Your camp wasn't tropical??

Where good campers clean up their dishes after meals.

Jungle Shop!  In case you forgot your organic lavender soap or botanical toothpaste. (Don't worry, I remembered mine.)

Daily Schedule Board! We'll see if I make it to the 6:30am yoga manana!

This is a board about Satsang...which is kind of like devotional time. Except ours is in a big marble floored hall in the middle of the Costa Rican jungle.

Standard Camp Buddha.  Typical.

Activities boards!  Not sure what I'm going to sign up for yet...

Silent meditation or Reiki or yoga?  So hard to choose!

 Ok, off to Silent Meditation hour before dinner!

Ouch

I'm sorry, did I sound smug in my last post? 

 I must have sounded smug because the universe decided to take me down 

a couple (hundred) notches.

That involved me waking up in the middle of the night to scramble out of the treehouse 

to puke in the bushes.

After a couple of rounds of said puking,

I thought I might be okay to go back to bed 

only to wake up and puke into my sarong!

(That doesn't work very well, fyi.)

The real low point though was when 

I decided to get in the shower to clean the sarong

and ended up on my hands and knees puking in the shower.

Classy.

Photo from food poisoning in Peru...but I looked pretty similar today

After cleaning myself up I snuggled myself into a hammock outside

(easier access to the bushes than from in a treehouse)

hugging my pillow and a trashcan.

A few more dry heaves into the trashcan as the sky was getting light,

then I was able to sleep all morning.

The super sweet hostel owner thinks it's because of the red algae in the ocean right now,

and that his friend across town had the same thing.  

Either way,

I was able to manage some ritz crackers, ginger ale and powerade,

the fever/chills/muscle aches are going down,

and I haven't puked for over 12 hours now.

Travel is so glamorous!

Month

Oh hello past month!  Let's see where you've been, because you've certainly not been on le blog...

- You were on the labor and delivery floor learning the miracles, smells, and beauty of birth for 12 or 24-hour shifts at a time

-You were taking your last tests of 3rd year.

-You were trying to tack down an amazing house to move into before you overstayed your welcome at the homeless medical student shelter (aka your extremely generous friends' gorgeous apartment).

- You were in Scotland (returning for the first time in 6 years! that's 72 in month time!) for the wedding of 2 wonderful, wonderful friends and a mini-reunion of more wonderful college friends.

-You were taken down and dragged across a beach for trying to wield a kite in Scottish winds.       

Never underestimate Scottish winds.

-You shot the cover for your new concept album for your band Meeshpups and the Rugby Girls.

-You were packing your life into your car for the last time this year before fleeing the country for a month pre-amazing-house-move-in.

-You were jet-lagged...like comatose at 9pm jet-lagged.

-You were celebrating the end of the 3rd year of medical school.  Unbelievable.

-You were hopping on a plane to Costa Rica knowing little more than you were going to Costa Rica and your amazing friends Connell and Melissa had organized everything.

-Ok, you were also seen worrying a little bit about all these crazy transitions!  Fun can be overwhelming when it's been so long since you last saw it!

-You were living the dream for a week in a gorgeous house with gorgeous people 400m from the Costa Rican surf...and it was not the Real World!...it only resembled it some nights...except we had 2 pregnant ladies...and we usually went to bed at 9:30pm.

 

-You were zip-lining..apparently with a personal photographer, Bob the Builder gloves, and some attitude.

-You stayed in Costa Rica after everyone left...and although you've been elusive, you little month you, it's rumored you can currently be found in a Treehouse hostel, in a bathing suit you've been wearing all day, and you may have just opened some red wine and taken a swig straight from the bottle.  

Because that's the kind of month you are.

And blogging or no blogging,

I think I like you.

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“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese