Another Day

I watched the sunset at Guiones Beach and the tide was high, leaving just a few hundred yards of sand for those of us gathered there as spectators for the sunset or for the surfers- the waves tonight were massive. Watching a surfer slice through the middle of a pale grey wall of water I calculated the wave was over twice as high as the person riding it. My friend Catherine arrived with a bottle of wine and two glasses and we sat on a blanket taking it all in while sipping a nice Malbec and getting to know each other. I had just taken a restorative yoga class at the institute with Jane earlier and felt really open and energized- a feeling I have not had since Dan left. I’ve been really struggling with the sciatica in my right leg and it has definitely cast a bit of a shadow on my experience here. At a time when I could really use the cooperation of this body, it has decided to rebel. The positive aspect of dealing with a chronic pain in a “yogi’s world” is that there are a lot of practitioners who want to help, give suggestions for stretches and massage you every day. The flip side of this is that some of these yogis believe pain in the body is a message from the soul, Jane in particular telling me, “Your issues are in your tissues” Yikes. I prefer to think of my yogi friend Yali’s advice telling me that it is blocked energy and you just need to keep the “prana” (life force) moving around. So I’m moving it around and trying not to give my discomfort too much attention. There are way too many other things that deserve it. After the sunset Catherine took me to her house and made a homemade pizza, with chicken, mushrooms, olives, onions and three cheeses. She is an artist and a fine painter, her work displayed throughout their home. Her recent paintings are studies on waves and bring to mind several of the local Outer Banks artists who have mastered the wave on canvas as well as the board. Catherine began surfing during a transitional time in her life, right after turning fifty after fully recovering from breast cancer and dealing with a broken heart. Now her heart is fully healed and she has a wonderful relationship with a beautiful man and her fifty plus body is sculpted and toned from her daily surf sessions. Like many of us who live creatively, she does what she can not only to make ends meet but to live fully in her environment, selling jewelry, paintings and teaching. The more I learn about this place and the people, who make their home here in Nosara, the more I realize that it is not so different from where I live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Arriving home, I had a brief talk with Dan who is in Denver to play at the Mile High Festival. We both agreed that this was a really difficult week for both of us after our week of “total immersion”. Eleven days left of my journey before I return home. I’m going to concentrate on keeping that Prana moving around and staying open to the endless possibilities in every day.