It’s been 2 months since I landed back in Costa Rica this year (after a few months in Canada), and 3 years since I first visited the country (from London). What was meant to be a 3-week holiday back then morphed into a major life adventure, when the pandemic sent the world into mayhem, borders closed, and shortly thereafter I began calling Costa Rica home.
A lot has happened over the course of this past calendar year. I moved to a different part of the country (after 3 property deals fell through in Montezuma, where I had been living and trying to buy land). I left behind the community and what little stability I’d started to build up for myself, following my intuition and trusting that even though I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, it was coming. It felt like the universe had been throwing obstacle after obstacle at me: but I’ve learnt that times like that offer us the opportunity to go deeper and deeper within ourselves, cultivating our inner strength. These times are often in fact preparing us for the road that awaits on the other side – where we may have to take giant leaps to achieve our dreams and make moves that an earlier version of ourselves might have been too scared to make.
To those going through challenging times, when things along your path seem to be going wrong and nothing is working out the way you planned it to, my advice is this: keep taking the little steps, root deeper into your daily discipline and routine, and bring your inner world into greater order. Focus on health, nourishing your body with good food, exercising, and meditating to quiet the mind and find inner peace. By doing this, you stay strong internally though things may be shaking up externally around you – and that strength will prepare you to seize the new opportunities when they do open up. Often, things work out just not in the way we think they will. Of course, stay active with working towards your goals – but let go of attachment to them being achieved in the way your mind is planning. The more we let go of the mind’s attachment, the more we can settle into greater peace in the present: comfortable within our bodies, and calm within our hearts.
I did end up finding the dream property – where I will develop the community centre project that I have been envisaging for many years now. The physical process of purchasing it seemed effortless in comparison to the earlier struggles I’d been having with land. But it was also a huge energetical leap of faith – as I stepped into taking responsibility for a big parcel of land, in a rural place where I had no community… although at least I had my now-husband.
I then spent a few months in Canada: going from a wild jungle environment of +30C tropics, to a frozen -30C winter in the city. In some ways, the contrast in climate helped me to delve deeper within myself and do what I needed to do to finally bring my book – Siege into existence. My time in Canada was very much a time of consolidation and integration, where I reconnected with parts of myself that I could almost say I “left behind” in London. I found myself appreciating the beauty and spirit in all things, and bringing my spiritual practices into more grounded application in daily life. I find that in many of the modern “new age” spiritual circles, there is a disconnection with “mundane” reality, or “normal” society: almost a shunning of it.
But what would the world look like if we treated our lives as the ceremony – instead of running off to the next Ayahuasca retreat, and saving ritual for discrete moments connecting with “other” realms? We were born into this reality, and I’m a firm believer of connecting deeper with, and finding the spirit in, the ordinary. Life is for living in the here and the now, for finding gratitude with the blessings we’re given, navigating our challenges with ease and grace, and working towards solutions to our problems (whether they be in our relationships, financial situation, or other personal circumstances) by facing difficulties, instead of running away or hiding in alternative realities.
I’m experiencing this at yet deeper levels since returning to the land in Costa Rica – where we’ve been confronted with a whole host of day-to-day challenges (including a landslide we need to repair before the next wet season arrives). We were also not able to get a quick public electrical connection (contrary to what we expected), so we’ve been getting by based on a single solar panel connected to a car battery, which we use to charge our electronic devices. It will be a luxury the day we can power a fridge – for now, we rely on filling a cooler with ice every 1-2 days. Our diets are simpler than they’ve ever been, and although I love to cook extravagant meals, there is a beauty in this simplicity. The more we strip away our external comforts and distractions, the more clearly we can look within, examine ourselves, and discover who we are beneath the layers.
With all this transition, and living a more basic life without electricity, I’ve been a little quieter online. But the creative spark is still present within me, and I look forward to sharing more of my poetry and music inspired from nights around the campfire, soon. In the meantime, you can find my book Siege on Amazon and other online retailers, or request it to be ordered from your local bookstore if you want to support me with developing more of a physical presence.
As always, I appreciate your support, and wish you a beautiful day. I hope that my words bring a spark of inspiration to your life, and may you always feel guided on every adventure.
With Love,
Cara