After the Boots, the Umbrellas

Not every moment is an adventure, but that is what it is like to live in another place, as opposed to just taking a vacation and staying in a  hotel. I am trying to explain this to Jaxon. We do not have the resources to raft, zip line and play all day for 30 days straight. There may be some boring moments, but then we rest up for the more exciting times ahead. We are here first as volunteers and as tourists second.


The volunteering has been humorous thus far. I had really expected that Jaxon and I would be doing some important research and helping out scientifically, but honestly there is little for us to do here. They are finding small tasks I think just to keep us busy. Yesterday we scrubbed the communal umbrellas. The day before that we scrubbed 50 pairs of stinky, rubber rain boots. (They said the boot area never looked so good!)

But we are finding pleasure in very simple moments here. Even in washing boots and umbrellas. Even though these tasks seem totally futile, we still we do them without complaining. (Well, Jaxon did a little bit.) But we played and laughed at the silliness of "our volunteer work." It is somewhat like the Buddhist idea,'"After the dishes, there are still dishes." You just do each task with mindfullness and when it is complete, you move on to the next thing. I like this from Thich Nhat Hanh, which illustrates this idea a little better:

Bathing a New Buddha

To my mind, the idea that doing the dishes is unpleasant can occur only when you are not doing them. Once you are standing in front of the sink with your sleeves rolled up and your hands in warm water, it really is not so bad. I enjoy taking my time with each dish, being fully aware of the dish, the water, and each movement of my hands. I know that if I hurry in order to go and have a cup of tea, the time will be unpleasant and not worth living. That would be a pity, for each minute, each second of life is a miracle. The dishes themselves and the fact that I am here washing them are miracles! Each bowl I wash, each poem I compose, each time I invite a bell to sound is a miracle, each has exactly the same value. One day, while washing a bowl, I felt that my movements were as sacred and respectful as bathing a newborn Buddha. If he were to read this, that newborn Buddha would certainly be happy for me, and not at all insulted at being compared with a bowl.

Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. In this light, no boundary exists between the sacred and the profane. I must confess it takes me a bit longer to do the dishes, but I live fully in every moment, and I am happy. Washing the dishes is at the same time a means and an end that is, not only do we do the dishes in order to have clean dishes, we also do the dishes just to do the dishes, to live fully in each moment while washing them.

If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have a cup of tea, I will be equally incapable of drinking the tea joyfully. With the cup in my hands I will be thinking about what to do next, and the fragrance and the flavor of the tea, together with the pleasure of drinking it, will be lost. I will always be dragged into the future, never able to live in the present moment.

I think this is an important lesson for Jaxon. When he complained and even I admitted that it was kind of stupid, we still did it and were able to make it fun. I told him that we are here to help and even if we do not think what they are asking of us has value, that we are still to do it and then we move on to the next thing - like an amazing hour in the rainforest resplendent with brilliant blue butterflies, green snakes and yellow birds. Not every moment is going to be that exciting, yet every moment has meaning and can be pleasurable if you just remember to LIVE in it. It's the time spent washing the boots and umbrellas that gives us a way to measure our time in the forest.

Another simple pleasure is that every day after lunch (which is the same EVERY day!), we get a helado (ice cream) and go sit on the hammocks together and watch the wildlife. This has become our ritual and I look forward to that 20 minutes every day.

Life is beautiful in the simple moments. It doesn't have to be all bungee jumping and Class VI rapids. This is what we are discovering here.