Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique 2023
Wilderness
Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place,
but a pattern of the soul
where every tree, every bird and beast
is a soul maker?
Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place
but a moving feast of stars,
footprints, scales and beginnings?
Since when
did we become afraid of the night
and that only the bright stars count?
Or that our moon is not a moon
Unless it is full?
By whose command
were the animals,
through groping fingers,
one for each hand,
reduced to the big and little five?
Have we forgotten
that every creature is within us
carried by tides
of earthly blood
and that we named them?
Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place
but a season
and that we are in its
final hour?
~Ian McCullum - “This poem is for Ian Player. Internationally recognised for his work as a conservationist and naturalist. History will show that he ranks among the great visionaries of the wild.”
Chapter 1 – What is Pilgrimage?
The Tao gave birth to everything seen and unseen, to that which came before, and followed after, the Big Bang of creation. The seeds of revolution, sprouting, blooming, blossoming within us at this moment, were scattered in that First Explosion, gathered in the hearts of stars, germinated in the oceans of life, and are born in our hearts today.
Tao Verse 6
- William Martin, The Activists Tao Te Ching
Pilgrimage is a concept in every major spiritual/religious tradition that means going on a journey of devotion to a holy place – a shrine, a cathedral, a well or spring, to obtain the blessing of healing from “God,” or the spirits that reside in that place. In the Middle Ages, this was an external journey, God was seen as an external deity to whom one petitions a favor, with promises to be good, right, and perfect, so that blessings of salvation, enlightenment, healing and wholeness, wealth and good fortune might ensue. Very often these journeys were undertaken under extreme circumstances of illness, dying, poverty and need. The journey itself was often treacherous and dangerous. Not only were the pilgrims sick, lame, blind … but they were vulnerable to attack and robbery. Special places held special magic for healing – very often pagan places of old wells on top of which were built churches and shrines.
Some of you have already commented that you are aware of how hot it will be on this trip. This is an amazing opportunity to experience your body and the wilds of Africa before the seasonal rains arrive and feel the expectancy, desire and need within. Pay close attention to your self talk and fears. Notice your privilege and comfort. This experience of heat is a gift that can bring you into harmony and empathy and deep compassion with the need for water on our planet. This is what Ian McCullum says in his book “Wild Gifts.”
“October in central African countries like Botswana can be ‘white hot.’ It is the month before the rains are due. Temperatures in excess of 40 degrees centigrade are the rule. Tempers fray at the edges. Sweat fills every facial crease, every bodily fold. The sun lets you have it from both sides, matching its overhead heat with a pinpoint glare that comes at you off a mirror called the Kalahari sandveld. Eyes scrunch up in defense against the light. Throats are impossible to quench, while sleeping beneath a mosquito net is like being trapped in a steam bath. Every creature, large and small prays for the rain.”
Africa is a very dry continent. Consider what it is like to live with the desperate need for the seasonal rains to start and bring with them life. As a child I grew up with my mother’s inner thirst matching the outer desperation of the earth - I felt in every bone of my body the suffering of not having the water of Life course through you internally and how the external can match this inner desperation. She was obsessed with the weather and suffered deeply when she saw animals and plants dying in the droughts so well known to Africans. Consider the heat you will feel in great comfort and with every help of modernity - use this opportunity as a deep meditation. I lived in Malawi for four years as a young woman. It is adjacent to Zimbabwe and Mozambique and I wish you could all experience this magnificent country. For a deeply moving story of drought in Africa read the book. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. by William Kamkwamba - and listen to his Tedtalk here:
https://www.ted.com/speakers/william_kamkwamba
https://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind
Heat is a land with no boundaries where elephants lean on three legs in shade as sharp as thorns, where eagles perch in wide mouthed awe of the sun and where rain is a dream of god.
Heat is a crucible where melting thoughts unconfined to the human skull are the only things that move, where dreams become black then red then white and where blood and water are the same thing.
Heat is the sound of cicadas whose sizzling secrets ring in the ear of the deaf man reminding him of the origin of bone, of alchemy and of seasons beyond the sun.
~Ian McCullum
For more on how to contribute to helping the water crises of Africa - Read here
Two ground Hornbills squabbling over a snake on the airport runway in Moremi. We call them Hollywood birds in our family because of their long luxurious eyelashes. If you look, really look, you will see such beauty!
Chapter 2 - Awakening to Fascination
Caring about the world does not begin with fear or morbidity but with fascination.
~Garrison Keillor
We focus a great deal of the inner work on uncovering motives rooted in fear and shame, unresolved needs from childhood and patterns of control and manipulation of ourselves and others. And this is of prime importance as Erik Pevernagie says, “If we don’t want life to pass us by, while the world is swiveling around us, let’s look inwards and turn things upside down in the inner chambers of our mind. Only after reshuffling our rooted values, we can look outwards, find out the fascinations of life, and rediscover ourselves, layer after layer.”
“Snakes are among some of the oldest living species on earth. They have been around close on two hundred million years, predating human life by a staggering one hundred and ninety eight million years. Their scales predate the evolutionary leap of feathers, the softened forms of their reptilian skin. Snakes grow by repeatedly outgrowing their skins. The younger they are, the more often they are required to do so until adulthood when an annual shedding suffices. This often occurs around spring or early summer when the warmth of the sun triggers renewed growth in their cold wintery blood. While not many people have a high regard for snakes, the symbolic significance for us humans of their capacity to outgrow their skin was not lost on ancient Greeks. A willingness to change, to outgrow old attitudes was essential to the healing process, they said. And so, the snake became the symbol of the central teachings of the mythological god of healing, Aesclepius. Wrapped around the legendary staff of the Greek god, the snake is still the symbol of the self healing profession today.” ~Ian McCullum
As a child I roamed the bush veld in search of snakes with a friend, Robert. Our biggest and most exciting find was a 12’ python we called Gertrude. Robert kept her in a cage his father built. My mother put her foot down this time, and to my great distress she insisted that if we wanted to keep her she was going to live at Robert’s house.. Shortly after getting her, she laid a clutch of eggs -as I recall - many - maybe 40 - 50 eggs. One day - I remember it was Sunday and we were eating Sunday dinner, Robert came racing up to the front door with great excitement carrying a huge round basket and announced, “We have had babies!” The basket had 40 - 50 tiny little baby pythons. It is one of the most thrilling memories I have of all our snake collecting days!
You will all be in a place where 12 - 20 foot African pythons are quite common. it will be a great honor if you get to meet one.. Last time we had a regular who was often seen on the lawn of the camp in the evening.
Please again use this opportunity to face any fears you might have - snakes are beautiful and very necessary. They keep other fast breeding species like rats and mice in check. Meditate on the meanings snakes have for the outer and inner world of your life. What skins do you need to shed. What transformations are you willing to move through? What is actually the meaning of the snake in the book of Genesis? To understand this myth is to understand life. How do you understand the poem by Ian McCullum?
Snake
Would you believe me if I told you that Prometheus was my other name? that Asclepius was my friend and that I was the message on Hermes staff?
Would you believe me if I told you that my serpentine course is how the stars unfold, how water finds its way and how flames shape themselves on their journey back to the sun?
Would you believe me if I told you that whenever a man says “Yes!” or “No!” Something in my skin stands up for I have heard a god-maker speak.
Would you believe me if I told you For every season of a child’s life And for every twist in your fate I shed my skin that my venom is the remedy for a rigid life?
Would you believe me if I told you That I was the shadow of Eden’s God, That my wrapping myself around you is not to constrict the tree of life But to know you and that even a god must shed his skin?
~Ian McCullum
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061130081347.htm - read here for the oldest ritual in the world,
70 000 years ago, in Botswana - a python ritual
African Python
Recommended Reading
The Elephant’s Child. How the Elephant got its Trunk. By Rudyard Kipling
This is a marvelous story of conservation and the relationship between the elephant and Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake! Read the original classic here:
https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/79/just-so-stories/1299/the-elephants-child/https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/79/just-so-stories/1299/the-elephants-child/
It is deeply philosophical and way ahead of it’s time. Kipling (1865 - 1936). It would be wonderful to read aloud and do a book study around this story.
I highly recommend watching “Africa Addio” - a 1966 documentary of the ending of Portuguese rule in Mozambique and the slaughter to humans and wildlife. Don’t turn your eye away - allow your heart to break for the state of humanity and find all the archetypes within your own psyche. Perhaps one of you could get a copy and arrange a movie night for discussion? Amazon sells it as Africa Blood & Guts: aka Africa Addio. This was very much the terror ridden environment in which my generation was raised… the heinous consequences of colonialism.
At least watch the youtube trailer of the movie or read the Wikipedia account.
Chapter 3 - Poaching
“One saw a bird dying, shot by a man. It was flying with rhythmic beat and beautifully, with such freedom and lack of fear. And the gun shattered it; it fell to the earth and all the life had gone out of it. A dog fetched it, and the man collected other dead birds. He was chattering with his friend and seemed so utterly indifferent. All that he was concerned with was bringing down so many birds, and it was over as far as he was concerned. They are killing all over the world. Those marvelous, great animals of the sea, the whales, are killed by the million, and the tiger and so many other animals are now becoming endangered species. Man is the only animal that is to be dreaded.” ~Jiddu Krishnamurti
Many of you have spoken of your love of elephants. There is much to be said about elephants, one of the most hunted and threatened species, together with rhino, on the African continent, and so we will start with the issue of hunting and then talk about what elephants teach us about ourselves.
Cecil the Lion - For More - Read here - you will be right by the game park, Hwange, where Cecil was killed
Tracking
There are basically two kinds of tracking, where the success of one depends on the success of the other. The first is COGNITIVE or outer tracking, where the spoor of the animal is identified and then followed, one step at a time until the animal is found. The other is INTUITIVE or inner tracking, where the spoor of the animal is identified and the tracker becomes the animal, moving to where the animal would have gone and finding it … waiting for the tracker. ~Ian McCullum
Tracking
Tracking is a gift of the moon, of discovering what it means to be a finely bitten fingernail, unsure of myself, alone in a star trodden sky; silently sifting the constellations yet trusting the sun.
Tracking is a gift of the earth, tip-toeing into Adam’s cave, discovering that tracks were born on the curving rock face of his retina and that everything wild when named, leaps from its painted beginnings out of his human eye and into my leaden feet.
Tracking is a gift of the wild of retracing steps discovering my own spoor looking behind me from time to time at my own signature coming to know the one who follows and who tracks me down to be born.
~Ian McCullum
Vervet monkey baby - pure and innocent until it becomes very smart and wily through shaming socialization - just like us.
Listen to the sacred hymn below first - meditate on the sounds - what do you experience, emotionally, visually, in your memory? What thoughts do you have. Journal first and then read the meaning in the beautiful translation below.
Stop the Fight of Shame
Stop the fight against shame
that leads you on a long and twisted path
away from contentment,
as you abandon and forsake
all that is your true, inner purity.
To stop the fight against shame
uncovers the inner purity of a new born child,
filled with the wonder and amazement
of the gentle path of contentment,
instead of losing yourself to the crooked,
twisted turns of shame.
Stop the fight against shame
And commit to the wonder and amazement of your True Eminence,
your inner purity,
And in turn, free yourself
from the race of proving yourself in time.
For contentment is not found in time….
but instead in your Infinite Eminence,
in the Breath of Love.
Stop the fight against shame
That runs away in fear of your cries of distress
And instead bring the peace of Love
to all you abandon within.
You can be saved from this fear
that causes you to run the race of earth
in contempt of connection to the Thou of All,
your inner Eminence.
As you inhale the Breath of Love,
exhale the smallness of earth,
with its injury and mischief to hunt and kill
all that swells your shame.
Contentment is found not in
hiding your sins of shame,
but in Loving your sins of the earth
with the wisdom of your Inner Messenger,
The Lord of Dancing!
In this Dance,
swirl with delight
to this Inner Messenger,
And find the flow of your
true and inner purity, in the Breath of Love.
And in your contentment, live to sound the drumbeat
of the Messenger for all to hear.
Slay not the connection to all,
but instead slay your thirst of the earth
With only your peaceful desire to shine your Eminence.
Yes, stand firm in the still point of peace
found in the Breath of Love.
Inhale its radiance and let it shine
with your oath to make straight
the crooked path of
fraudulence in your hidden shame.
The fear you feel in this invitation
will divide you from the Surrender of Love
continuing the crooked, twisted path of shame
that kills and destroys.
With divine and infinite certainty,
surrender all of the earth
to the All of Thou,
and shine forth with the gift of your Eminence.
Desire this…..
to know yourself as the purity of Breath of Love within….
And stop the fight of shame.
© Charisse Lyons June 23
When my children were in grade school, I lived for a few years in a small town called Louis Trichardt, named after one of the Voortrekker leaders. One day at the local plant nursery I came across a baby vervet monkey tied to a post. I asked the owner about it and she said it was brought to her when the farmers killed the troop of monkeys in their maize field. This is the horrible conflict that arises between man and wildlife when he has entered into the phase of development of conquering and raping the land instead of learning to live in harmony with the land and its species. I took the baby to my parents farm and, of course, as with all orphans, my mother instantly fell in love with the monkey and raised it in the house. He wore diapers until he was “potty trained.” He was an absolutely destructive little monster, being a wild animal with very high intelligence and no monkey socialization to teach him how to be a monkey. His life was doomed, caught between species. He would never be accepted by any local troop of monkeys and he could not be socialized by humans, even though he now saw them as his troop. Fortunately, or unfortunately Green Monkey Fever(Marburg virus) broke out in the area and he had to be euthanized as this is a deadly disease to humans. This virus is a strain of Ebola which you have heard of. Because this monkey lived around the house with contact with local troops of monkeys and the farm laborers he was taken to the vet. It was an enormously sad day - my mother saw him as one of her children. Consider the deep implications of this little story as we try to live an, aware, collaborative life on this planet. Consider the role of shaming as a means of socialization that exists together with your parents love. Fully human - fully divine. And we as humans can come to live in the consciousness of divinity and embrace and hold our shame based selves in that love. What a miracle of Life. Be astounded by your own capacity. Honor and revere it and live into the poem above through your practice.
Chapter 4 - Elephant Wisdom and Colonialism - Caretaking always Disempowers
Many of you have indicated a deep affinity to the elephant in the way’s in which they relate and form family bonds. You will be encountering many elephants on this trip. Every time, I learn something from them - I hope each of you gets a deep and life changing message from elephant.
Many years ago, I was sitting at a watering hole in the Addo National Park in South Africa watching a herd of elephants. The banks of the pan were slippery red clay. As I watched. a little baby elephant reached for the water with his trunk and his front legs started slipping down the bank. He tried frantically to scramble back up. It was to no avail, and he slid back into the water up to his shoulders! His mother was clearly a little distressed and all the aunty elephants started milling restlessly around as they watched the infant try to pull himself back up the bank.
Caretaking definition - Read here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESkA8260tJQhy - watch this beautiful youtube video from Cathy highlighting the problems of human/animal co-existence and village life in remote rural areas.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The Blue Sweater. Bridging the gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.
Jacqueline Novogratz
JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ is founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture capital firm for the poor that invests in sustainable enterprises in the developing world.
This is an easy read and yet profoundly moving, deeply inspiring and highly relevant. Clearly this is a woman who has done a lot of inner work and so knows how to contribute to the world in a meaningful and transformative way.
“I've learned that there is no currency like trust and no catalyst like hope. There is nothing worse for building relationships than pandering, on one hand, and preaching, on the other.
And the most important quality we must all strengthen in ourselves is that of a deep human empathy, for that will provide the most hope of all -
and the foundation for our collective survival.” ~Jacqueline Novogratz
“A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic and social institutions, a holy force - the power of wisdom and love in action - is born. This force I define as SacredActivism.” ~Andrew Harvey
Chapter 5 – What Mindless Habits get you into Trouble?
“The unexamined life is not worth living, but the un-lived life is not worth examining.”
~Andrew Klavan
The hippopotamus, also known as the “river horse,” lives along the rivers and lakes throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Weighing up to 8,000 pounds, the hippo is the heaviest land animal after the elephant. Hippos seek refuge from the heat by living in water during the day, and at night they come ashore to feed on short, soft grasses and fallen fruit. The eyes and ears of a hippopotamus are on top of its head, so it can keep watch for enemies—mainly crocodiles—while lying low in the water. These giants are currently at risk from habitat loss.
STATUS: Vulnerable
POPULATION
115,000 to 130,000
SCIENTIFIC NAME
Hippopotamus amphibius
“Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.” ~George Orwell, 1984
DO NOT feed the wildlife. If this baboon gets aggressive with trying to get food from tourists he will be shot. Feeding baboons is a manifestation of your caretaking (all for your benefit, not the baboons). Think of motive and consequence in you. Of what do you need to let go? Despite knowing this, people still feed the baboons. Why would you want to feed a baboon, knowing it could cause its death?
Chapter 6 - Do you only have Baboon capacity?
“"If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.”
~Roy T. Bennett
Lioness hunting a warthog in Chobe National Park
Chapter 7 – A Lesson from Giraffe – processing feelings
Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full. ~ Carl Jung
The bush-veld is a wild, primeval place where you are either the hunter or the hunted. There is a savage, harsh beauty to the land and yet there is no place on earth that I feel a greater sense of tranquility. Death and killing erupt suddenly and is quickly over and then peace reigns again as if nothing happened.
Lions are notoriously poor hunters and miss their prey quite often. Like all cats they spend a lot of time sleeping and in the heat of an African drought food is plentiful and they are fat and sleek, which is why they are so hard to spot unless they are on the hunt. They blend into the grass so well you could drive right by them and not see them. If they miss the prey, they give up quickly, slump back down in the shade of an acacia tree, panting languidly and wait for something a little easier to come their way.
Ziziphus
The ziziohusa mucronata, commonly known as "‘buffalo thorn’ is called in Afrikaans the ‘blinkblaar wag ‘n bietjie.’ Literally translated it means the shiny leafed ‘wait a while’ tree. it is indigenous to the entire continent of Africa, extending also into the Middle East. it has two rows of thorns on its branches, one row pointing upward and out while the other hooks backwards. It is the hook shaped thorns which pulls at you, ‘telling’ you to wait a while. The upper surface of its leaves has a reflecting sheen. The tree holds special significance among many of the traditional African people who utilize the roots, bark and leaves for food, medicines and potions. For the traditional Zulu the tree is sacred because it is believed that the ancestors can be carried in the thorny branches. What is more, they say the thorns that point forward tell you to keep looking ahead, while the ones that hook backward say you must never forget where you come from.
~Ian McCullum
Cape buffalo with ox-peckers on it’s back helping it get rid of ticks.
Chapter 8 - Thorns and Mother Love
Africa is a land of many thorns. As a child you learn to walk carefully through the bushveld. You know what creepers on the ground will pierce your feet, what bushes will grab you as you go by, and you watch with wonder as the elephant breaks off branches of vicious thorns from the knobthorn trees and munches them without any concern. You watch as giraffe wind their long, black tongues around thorn branches and delicately eat the soft leaves in-between the thorns of acacia thorn trees.
Recommended Additional Study
ional Stuhttps://networkmagazine.ie/articles/learning-speak-giraffe-nonviolent-communication-action - read here and then do more research into non-violent communication
It may not be irrelevant to note that even very modest forms of life, like earthworms, dung beetles and fiddler crabs, have no trouble identifying the real problems with which they must deal
if they are to survive.
~ Edward Goldsmith
Chapter 9 -Empathy, Inter-being and Dung Beetles
Apprehend God in all things,
for God is in all things.
Every single creature is full of God,
and is a book about God.
Every creature is a word of God.
If I spent enough time with the
tiniest creature -
even a caterpillar -
I would never have to prepare a sermon.
So full of God is every creature.
~Meister Eckhart
For supplemental journaling work - read here
Black backed Jackal -Botswana
“If you are a jackal, you will try to reassure. Jackals try to fix people in pain. They can’t stand pain, but make matters worse by trying to get rid of it. Put on giraffe ears. Try to hear what they are feeling and needing. ~Marshall B. Rosenberg
Chapter 10 - Holding jackal in your heart with compassion and firmness
There are 4 species of giraffe, 2 are on the vulnerable list and two are endangered. You will be encountering the Southern Giraffe.
Northern giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis ~5,919 remaining)
Southern giraffe ( Giraffa giraffa ~48,016 remaining)
Masai giraffe ( Giraffa tippelskirchi ~45,402 remaining)
Reticulated giraffe ( Giraffa reticulata ~15,985 remaining)
There are three species of jackal and you will be encountering the black backed jackal
The sandy colored golden jackal
The black backed jackal
The side-striped jackal
They are all vulnerable but not endangered with man, leopards, hyenas and eagles being their major predators.
“As Giraffes, we make requests in terms of what we want people to do, not what we want them to feel. All the while, we steer clear of mandates. Nothing creates more resistance than telling people they "should" or "have to" or "must" or "ought to" do something. These terms eliminate choice. Without the freedom to choose, life becomes slave-like… Prompted by directives and injunctions, people do not take responsibility for their actions.”
Speke’s Hingebacked Tortoise
Chapter 11 - How to Tame a Tortoise - Projection and Empathy
“All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence... Thus, your life has no end, and you shall live forevermore.”
~Kahlil Gibran
Chapter 12 - Chameleon -How do you Camouflage Yourself?
“She spent an astonishing amount of time in attending lectures and demonstrations, distributing literature for the Junior Anti-Sex League, preparing banners for Hate Week, making collections for the savings campaign, and such-like activities. It paid, she said; it was camouflage. If you kept the small rules you could break the big ones.”
~George Orwell, 1984
“Although it would be about the leper colony of Bababaghi, the film would also explore the fact that great trouble and suffering is caused when we reject certain parts of ourselves and bury our unwelcome feelings, rather than facing up to our problems and searching for a solution. The story of a community being rejected due to a lack of access to proper medical help would draw wider attention to how societies are willing to condemn anything that is different to themselves, rather than to confront their fears of the other.”
~Maryam Diener, Beyond Black There Is No Colour: The Story of Forough Farrokhzad
Chapter 13 - In What will Emotional Leprosy Result?
“Leprosy also known as Hansen disease named after a Norwegian physician Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen who identified the causative organism in 1873, is a skin and nerve infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Since biblical times, the disease continues to be an important cause of peripheral neuropathy, disability and disfigurement Worldwide, 2 million people are estimated to be disabled by leprosy. In 2010, 228 474 new cases were detected, and the worldwide registered prevalence was 192 246 cases. Word Health Organization (WHO) targeted leprosy as one of the diseases to be eliminated from the world as a public health problem by reducing the prevalence to less than 1 case per 10,000 population based on the use of multi-drug therapy (MDT). Despite the success of MDT, endemic pools still exist in some countries that attained the national elimination threshold.
Malawi attained the WHO leprosy elimination status in 1994. Nationally, it still maintains this status where in 2010 the country registered a total of 632 leprosy cases out of 14 million people, representing 0.5 cases per 10,000 population.”
The statistics in Botswana and Zimbabwe average 14/15 cases per year, but Mozambique is a different story where 3 135 cases in 2021, 52 more cases than the preceding year.
What does this horrible disease teach us?
For more - Read here
Can you see how rejecting parts of our of own body and experience result in us rejecting other people and sectors of the planetary body?
When you leave out the feeling part of experience, or the need part of experience, or the belief and meaning part of experience, or the behavioral part of experience, you are disconnected pieces instead of a coherent, free, flowing whole. And this is how you will relate to the world - in a disjointed, disconnected and incoherent way - an emotional leper.
Chapter 14 - Rhino’s, Self-Responsibility and Empowerment
“Yesterday I was clever, and so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ~Rumi
“And by doing so, I change the world.” ~Lyndall
White rhino - Kruger National Park - highly protected in Botswana and whereabouts kept secret - seldom seen
Rhinos are the second largest mammal and can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. They are named for their giant horn for which they are being killed.
150 years ago, the rhino population was estimated in the millions. Toay the population is estimated at 27,431. Three rhinos are killed a day. The reason they are being killed is in some cultures, the keratin found in rhino horn is believed to contain magical powers to cure illnesses ranging from hangovers to cancer. On the black market, two pounds of rhino horn is worth up to $60,000. Not one ounce of rhino horn harvested from a rhino does anything to support humans.
Rhinos are a keystone species which means other species, and the health of the ecosystem they are a part of, largely depend on their presence. Rhinos eat only certain grasses which leaves other grasses for wildlife that would not be able to compete with the rhino for food and they create trails that serve as fire breakers in the wild.
When a keystone species is endangered, not only is the world at risk of a species going extinct, we ourselves suffer the loss because these animals contribute to health of our planet and our very existence. These animals contribute more per capita to the ecosystem than we do by their sheer existence. For more read here:
https://www.wildforchange.com/blog-content/no-one-needs-a-rhino-horn-except-a-rhino
Chapter 15 - Spider and Sticky Webs of Entrapment
“And the spiders?"
"Still there."
"But?"
"But I can have spiders in my head as long as I don't let them consume me.”
― T.J. Klune, The House in the Cerulean Sea
Common, harmless friend who eats the mosquitoes in houses - we call them Flatties and you may encounter them in your rooms, together with geckos. You may not kill them. Remember there is nothing you may kill on this trip. Face your fear and offer reverence to every life form you encounter.
Lilac-breasted Roller - a common sighting. Birds are the symbol of the soul - the part of us that can take flight - is not bound to earth/ego
Chapter 16 - Hear your Song
“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.” ~ Rumi
“Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom. How do they learn it? They fall and falling, they're given wings.” ~Rumi
"In order to see birds, it is necessary to become a part of the silence."
~Robert Lyndall
People often asked him which of all the creatures encountered in his many years as a hunter and dweller, in far-away places of Africa, he found most impressive. Always he answered that it would have to be a bird of some kind. This never failed to surprise them, because people are apt to be dazzled by physical power, size, frightfulness, and they expected him to say an elephant, lion, buffalo or some other imposing animal. But he stuck to his answer; there was nothing more wonderful in Africa than its birds. I asked why precisely. He paused and drew a circle with his finger in the red sand in front of him before saying that it was for many reasons, but in the first place because birds flew. He said it in such a way that I felt I had never before experienced fully the wonder of birds flying.
~Sir Laurens Van Der Post, The Heart of the Hunter
It is Hard to Breathe, sometimes, in Africa
It is hard to breathe, sometimes, in Africa,
when the stench of milky sewage seeps
in rivulets down the eroded dirt of the hillside
from the lean-to tin and wooden-slatted shanty shack
clinging precariously to the side of the mountain.
Or when the mangy, tick born,
gaunt and starving puppy
approaches warily
In the hopes of being thrown a life sustaining scrap.
Or the snotty nosed, dirty little Aids orphans
with flies buzzing around their eyes
and their round bellies drum-taught with infestations of worms,
and hunger
put their arms up for hugs.
I find I sigh a lot in Africa.
Sighs to keep living
when my soul and breath freezes with sorrow
for young men idling away their lives at the side of the road
whoring away the strength of their youth to do the bidding of the wealthy
digging and hauling and carrying –
for a pittance of pennies -
enough to feed the starving children on the hill tonight,
or perhaps to buy oblivion in a bottle
till the next morning of repetitious grinding, waiting
I stop breathing when I receive a little note on my pillow
from the domestic worker,
written carefully in 4th grade handwriting,
“Please can you help me to get my driving license?”
She walks 10 miles a day to and from her work on the opposite hill,
to wash and iron the white peoples’ dirty laundry,
clean their shitty toilets,
wipe out the toothpaste and phlegm in their sinks
and pack up the left-over table scraps
to take home to the hungry children on the other side of town.
I hold my breath listening to the insane intensity of the young man
who lives in a cave by the sea in the small town of Wilderness
He explains that “the Father” tells him how to live his life.
He takes in the homeless and bereft – they can sleep in his cave.
I sigh a lot in Africa
I sigh the sadness into my being.
And sometimes as I open my arms wide
to embrace the ragged orphans
and feel their soft little bodies snuggle up close with need,
My heart expands and my breathe becomes vast
and fills my being with life and love
Or the beauty of the shimmering, sun-bejeweled sea,
untouched by the dramas on her hilly shores,
is so beautiful that I breathe in deeply,
to take in the fresh clean salty breeze,
the light and luminosity
and call of the seagulls,
the flashing colors of the sunbirds and
the noisy community calls of the seals far beneath the rocky cliffs.
I cannot breath in enough of the cool pre-dawn African air,
filled with the primeval sounds of the lions hunting
and calling one another,
The sky and clouds lighting up blue and gold and pink
as the earth moves in her orbit,
drawn inexorably back to the light of the sun,
in a regular rotation of necessity.
I want to keep these sounds and sensations, smells and sights
and hungrily breathe them in as if they will then stay with me forever,
Knowing that I must leave soon, this beloved land.
Sometimes my soul relaxes.
Air rushes in with the smiles of generosity and giving,
the easy laughter of the saints on both hills.
On one side of town
those that are awake
give rides to the weary women walking down the hill home,
to other side, the poor part of town in the evenings.
On the other side of town,
the face of smile-wrinkles and sparkling eyes of Margaret,
the matriarch of orphans,
her head thrown back with a toothless smile as wide as the ocean
As she opens her arms to the lost waifs
as well as the wealthy benefactors
Everyone is welcome in this house of love.
It is hard to breathe in Africa.
I sigh a lot in Africa.
It is enough to practice the breath in Africa
so that it can become like the regular, beating pulse of the land
and the steady, rhythmic, natural movement of the ocean
the slow and inevitable rotation of the earth.
No matter what is happening on her surface,
To remain calm and unchanging
accepting and present.
To hold all of it in the infinite vastness
Of my breath - in and out.
© Lyndall Johnson 2017
Chapter 17 -Learning to See and Listen Deeply
Surrender to the Breath of Love
Read and study Translation below:
Surrender to the Breath of Love.
Inhale its embrace to all you have abandoned.
In this surrender
is a stillness of Spirit
and the unity of all that has been divided.
The choice is yours!
Unity in Love,
or division in hatred.
Quell the fear of this surrender.
Does a baby fear falling into
a mother’s embrace?
Does a bird tremble in the
protection of the nest?
Surrender to the Breath of Love
Inhale its embrace to all you have abandoned.
In its flow twirls the Teacher
whose art of Dancing the Joy of Love
Is the freedom from division,
and its prison and chains.
Allow this Dance of Freedom.
Be released from the prison of
appearing beautiful!
Remove the chains of
pretending to be happy!
Your prison of fear tells you there is peace
in acting fraudulently.
The chains of shame tells you there is wholeness
in getting more,
so that there is more to show.
Surrender!
Loosen the chains of your grip
on trying to live a life without Breath, without Dance.
Surrender to the Breath of Love.
Inhale its embrace to all you have abandoned.
Surrender to the Breath of Love,
Inhale its embrace to all you have abandoned.
Imagine a life not of the earth,
where living to breathe
the Love of Spirit
Leads you to the truth
of your own Eminence.
The Great King and Queen of Love within.