babylon

in guiana before la saison de pluie begins there is this electric green butterfly with a white kind of tail thing that comes. you can see this butterfly everywhere. and its beautiful and neon and has a really spastic flight pattern. and then the rain comes. and man does it rain. ive never known rain like this before. sometimes you can still function in it but then there are times when you just have to stop. you have to stop driving/scooting/walking. you cant speak because no one is able to listen. you can only hear the rain. its really something. but that being said...it doesnt rain all day (though im told it will sometimes) and it has cooled this country down immensely. the surfers are happy because there are finally waves to ride. the frogs are happy. the turtles are happy. the fruit has grown. the waterfalls have grown. the plants and the animals and the insects of the forest have grown. this is a country lush and full of life. 

yesterday morning i went with rasta to a waterfall spot in the jungle. we hiked up a hill through the bamboo that grows wild on Rorotan. the waterfall was modest in size but a few more big rains and that will change. you all loved planet earth right? remember the one with the mushrooms? they do that sped up montage of mushroom growth? super impressive. remember the white one that wiggles up out of the ground and then sprouts the white net like thing around itself? i saw that mushroom!!! with the net and all! three of them! really exciting. and a hand full of neon blue butterflies, one white snake, moss covered boulders, and the most enormous fromager i have ever seen. this is the tree that the haitians are so superstitious about. did i already write about this? its huge. the roots are really wide and this one had roots that had grown across the river. you cant touch it (if you are superstitious) or it will bring you bad luck. but i wanted to live in it!! will return to that spot soon for some photos. on our decent from the waterfall spot, we were slipping on the moss-mud-leaves. rasta told me "le retour est toujours plus difficile" and this has been something ive been thinking a lot about. the return is always more difficult. 

this is from a man who is more free than any other person i have ever known. it is difficult to explain. i dont mean to criticize at all. just to present a different idea. we live in babylon. babylon is not real. he lives in zion. zion is not real either. but zion is freedom. you may think you are free. i thought i was free too. but there is so much more to life than what we have in babylon. there are positive aspects to each world. and they are never completely separate. really i dont think one could exist without the other. but ill tell you...ive had a taste of zion and it tastes good. it is mostly about living exactly how you want to live as long as it does not interrupt the life of anybody else. it is about doing what you want to do as long as it does not compromise what someone else wants to do. its about being aware of the earth that gives us life and being aware that we share this earth with many many different kinds of people. and loving all of those people. 

this is an interesting note to go out on...but im going to do it anyways. graham is coming in one week. we will have christmas and the new year together. perhaps i will write again once or twice. but for now i need to live. i need to be present here. i need to lessen the time i spend on the internet and greater the time i spend in zion. (i think zion is also like paradise...and its not that this place is paradise but that anywhere can be paradise. the present is paradise.) is this exactly what everyone knew would happen? 

life is good. im happy, healthy, and very alive. i hope the same goes for everyone back home. 

peace and lots of love

until next time