RatFox

Hola!

Update time, been meaning to write for a while now but many a
distracting life thing has been happening…
Right now I got carried away and drank a pot of raw cocoa (from a
chocolate shaman apparently) from Guatemala that a friend supplied.
Its meant to be good for meditation/dreams and so I took it,
forgetting it also has caffeine, so now I am sitting up late, tweaking
a little, writing the email thats been flitting around in the back
recesses of my mind for the last few weeks. Interested to see how this
goes…

Firstly, I am no longer in Canada. This is worth mentioning.
I left around Oct 3rd to come to Mexico (where even the store
mannequins have bigger bums), it was quite an unexpected and
relatively rapid decision to do so.
My love affair with Canada came to an abrupt but happy end.

I had a wee adventure in transit; almost being denied entry into the
country, having my pack not show up at the airport and spending an
unexpected day in in Mexico City while waiting to see if it showed up
(was great!), unexpectedly being part of a big protest (was in London
during the riots last year, in Montreal for protests earlier this
year, and then walking into this in Mexico city… I seem to be on a
role here), spending almost 24 hours on bus and transit before
arriving in little old Mazunte late in the evening in a confused and
shattered state.
Now I am residing at the Agama yoga (and Hridaya meditation) centre
until the end of year. For those of you who know Emma, this is the
place where she has spent time and done a lot of wonderful training.
I am finding it a very incredible place and if you are at all
interested in Yoga/meditation let me know and I will tell you more
about it! (I implore you)

The school has been a delight so far. Day one I walked into the yoga
class and a sea of beautiful, beautiful women. The single biggest
challenge so far has been to not get too distracted or overwhelmed by
this sheer abundance of decadent female form. Why more guys don’t take
yoga I do not know.
I have taken on the role of general handyman here and have become
intimate friends with the staple gun (you can fix almost anything with
a staple gun if you are tenacious enough). The tiny tool shed has
become my wee domain. It has bats, I have outdone myself in wit by
nicknaming it the ‘bat-cave’.

I thought I would send some photos but I need to get more organised
and upload them first; I will try and write a follow up update soon.

In the last few months I have learned two interesting things about
myself/life lessons:
1) I have discovered a wee world view of mine going back to
highschool. At some point I started this mentality of trying to
achieve things using the minimal amount of effort required. This grew
into a constant delicate dance, working this fine line, falling short
of success as often as achieving it. I want to write more on this but
I am starting to get quite tired. Basically, I have come to a very
clear understanding that there are no shortcuts when it comes to
anything that’s worth while doing.

2) For a long while now I having been exploring what it is to offer
yourself in pure service, without the ego, without expectations of
receiving in return. For a long time this meant being available/ready
to serve/help others when called at any moment. I was getting to a
point where it was becoming so easy, beautiful in its simplicity. Then
things started getting troublesome and not so straight forward,
suddenly just being available to be directed wasn’t always enough.
Finally, I learned an unexpected lesson; sometimes the best service
you can do for someone is to take charge of a situation and relieve
another of their responsibility. Not just be there to be directed, but
do the directing yourself.

I wonder if that makes sense at all? I’m looking back at what I’ve
just written and its starting to sound very funny.

Thinking of friends and family back home a lot these days. Missing the homeland.
My grandmother died two weeks ago, it was hard being so far from home,
there were a lot of emails flying around from family and stories being
shared which was very good though.

Life is humming, I tell you. That is for sure.

Time for bed I think.
Yes.

Besos,
R:D