The movement and sounds that greet me each morning upon awakening are all around me as I begin my routine of making a cappucino. I am in tune with each living thing whose day has begun. Listening to the percolating of water pressing through the grounds of dark, aromatic coffee, I am aware that the birds too have their morning routine.
The sound of tires rolling over the cobble stone street announces the arrival of the gardener of Casa de Tortugas. He walks through the gate, looks up at me and waves, "Hola!" Each morning when he arrives, he smiles, then gets to work, or is it work, I wonder. From my perch, over-looking the fisherman's dock, and shimmering blue sea, I watch as he takes the pool scoop with its long handle into his strong, brown hands, and starts methodically pushing the basket net along the bottom of the pool, and ponder that perhaps he is meditating, that this is not work. Gentle movements back and forth, I am drawn into the rhythm, feeling him breathing in as he pulls the net towards him, breathing out as he pushes it away. Leaf after leaf, he meditates on the ripple and swirls he is creating upon the once still water. The dance upon the water, scooping up the leaves, becomes hypnotic and I too find my breath slowing down in sync with the gardener's motions.
In this tranquil state, I wonder what else has fallen under the gardener's spell and look around. I notice that the fisherman's boats are gently rocking and swaying as if being lulled awake to be ready for rougher seas. A still small breeze begins and the palm fronds shiver with the mixture of the warming sun and cool breeze. Suddenly, something splashes loudly in the water in the cove below. Startled from my reverie, did a pelican drive just now? I watch, anticipating the brown head and long beak to pop up but instead I am surprised and delighted as a black lab energetically swims out to retrieve the item.
The melancholy waves against the shore are the basso continue of this ever present symphony of this day and resonate with the calm pace of life here. I watch the dawn sending golden rays across the water and their reigns in me a deep feeling of peacefulness, which in turn gives birth to a deep feeling of gratitude. I return again and again to this magical place knowing that we are all part of the great symphony of a new day, co-creators responsible for our part. One can never know what the day will bring here in Chacala. But each morning, my senses are drawn to listen and stay in harmony with all that is around me.
by Melinda Fouts 3/14/2014