My intention late Tuesday morning was to spend a large block of time studying Spanish verbs and grammar. After an hour of struggling to keep my eyes open, I finally got the message. My body was telling me there was something else I ought to be doing—something quite different from sleepily studying on a bench in the plaza.
A little feeling in my heart told me “Hop on your bicycle, crank up your IPOD, and start exploring.”
While I don’t normally bring my bicycle down to the plaza, today happened to be different. My trusty little mountain bike was right there, leaning against a short wall less than five feet away. Coincidence?
As I browsed through my thousands of MP3 files, a two-hour speech reached out and grabbed my attention. The speaker, Eve Wood, conducted a breakout session at a spiritual conference that I attended a few years back—but I had not attended her presentation and had never listened to her talk. As I pushed the play button, I had no idea what to expect.
Minutes later, as I cruised through the narrow crowded streets of Cozumel, I was awake, and fully energized. From the very beginning of her speech, Eve’s words were connecting and deeply registering with my soul. As it turns out, she is a spiritually-minded psychiatrist. Her beautiful presentation focused on healing concepts that are very dear to my heart—concepts I frequently discuss in my own writing.
At one point in her speech, Eve referred to the story of “The Princess and the Pea.” You may recall that the princess was unable to sleep, even on a tall stack of soft mattresses. After agonizing exhaustion, she discovered and removed a small pea at the bottom of the mattress pile. The princess was finally able to comfortably rest.
Using this story as an analogy, Eve compared the pea to the many ignored and unresolved emotional issues in our own lives. She talked about how these well hidden elements of our past story subconsciously affect us and cause a variety of dysfunctions in our lives—not just emotional problems, but physical ones as well.
To make a long story short, Eve related story after story about former clients whose emotional and physical symptoms had been returned to balance simply by helping them to explore their own story, and helping them to discover when and where they began to ignore their own inner wisdom—the voices of their own inner desires and passions.
Pushing the Limits
After taking a short lunch break, I checked in again with my own heart. Soon I was leaving the city, headed southbound along the ocean front. Logic dictated that this would be a short ride. I had already been on two separate twenty-plus mile rides on Saturday and Sunday, and recognized that I was pushing my limits.
As I approached my intended turn around point, about five miles south of town, I noticed a small paved road that headed east, into the heart of the jungle.
“You know you want to explore that road,” the little voice whispered in my heart, “and you already know you are going to do it today.”
How could I say no to that?
Pedaling slowly, I stayed to the right side of the road hoping to catch portions of spotty shade that occasionally lined the hot asphalt nearest the jungle trees. I rarely listen to my IPOD when exploring, but this time I continued my morning inspiration. A random selection of beautiful music provided background ambience for my latest in-the-moment exploration.
The road continued in a straight line for several miles. As the road approached its final dead end into the jungle wilderness, a small grid of asphalt roads split off in various directions. Being careful to remember my path through the unfolding maze, I methodically explored each and every road. Scattered here and there were a couple of homes that appeared to be occupied, along with several partially completed structures that seemed to be totally abandoned.
Strangely enough, some of these abandoned roads even had sidewalks that were completely overgrown by dense jungle vegetation. It was as if a huge subdivision had once been laid out with ambitious growth plans—only to be completely abandoned in mid-stream.
As I pedaled slowly by one of the few occupied homes, two large dogs left the shade of an SUV and charged in my direction, barking loudly in a threatening manner. While recognizing my defenselessness and imagining the dogs’ large teeth, I smiled and firmly barked my own orders back at them.
“You leave me alone!” I lovingly lectured them. “Go back to your house!”
I do have to admit, that a small burst of fear momentarily sank its hooks deeply into my gut. Taking a quick deep breath, I briefly centered myself while surrendering my fate to the universe.
Maintaining my composure, I remained calm and peaceful as I pedaled forward. Fifteen seconds later, the noisy watchdogs gave up their fierce bullying and retreated back to the shade.
As I traversed my way back toward the main highway, my eyes were attracted to a small cleared trail. With a feeling of intrigue, I eagerly set off on another adventure. This narrow, rough, and bumpy trail rapidly inched its way up to the top of my mental list of favorite trails. Obvious signs of horse shoe tracks, and occasional horse droppings, convinced me that this was a well-maintained horseback riding trail.
Barely wide enough for a single horse to pass, this trail was lined with lush green vegetation. At times, the medium-height canopy above was so thick that the hot blistering sun was all but blocked out. Sensing the exhaustion in my muscles, and feeling the heat (even in the shade) on my arms and shoulders, I finally succumbed to my “its time to go home” feelings. Had it not been for the lateness of the afternoon, I might likely have continued on even further.
Temazcal Times Two
Soon after arriving home, I performed a quick scan of my email. Eagerly opening up an email from Arturo, I smiled a huge internal grin as I read what he had to say.
His message was brief—merely listing a web site address, asking me to check it out, and to let him know what I think.
The web site was for yet another Temazcal (Mayan sweat lodge) – one that was located in the same general region that I had been exploring all afternoon.
I could not help but be amazed by the synchronicities of my previous two days. For two months, my feelings have guided me to sit back, relax, and do nothing in the area of Mayan spiritual explorations. Now, in a period of two and a half days, I have been independently guided to two separate Temazcal sites—in two totally different areas of the island.
As coincidence would have it, on Sunday I was guided to discover the first Temazcal site on my own, simply following internal hunches while riding through the jungle adjacent to San Gervasio.
The second Temazcal was independently located by my friend Arturo. The only thing Arturo knows is that I am looking for a medicine man. I have not said a word to him about my discovery at Villa Maya. To make things even more interesting, the second Temazcal is very close to the jungle area that I was exploring on Tuesday.
How’s that for a seeming coincidence? Anyone who wants to stay in their left brain could easily argue that both events were simply that—coincidences. However, the joyful peaceful feelings in my heart tell me otherwise.
A little internal bird tells me that I will be participating in both Temazcal ceremonies very soon.
Copyright © 2009 by Brenda Larsen, All Rights Reserved