A Beginner's Mind

 

Shoshin, or “beginner’s mind” is a Zen Buddhist thing. I love the IDEA of it. Erase your mind of all preconceptions and just start with a blank slate in your new place, whether physical, mental or in my case, both. Embracing the Beginner’s Mind in practice is tough for me.  I have tumors of pride lodged in my throat and stomach that make shoshin hard to swallow and digest.

I have been in Cape Town, South Africa for 11 days and my shoshin is all over the place. Here are some snippets:

• Home Security: coming and going from any house is a production involving gates, locks, alarm codes, curtains and then double checking it all to make sure you didn’t forget anything.

• Mobility: I am learning how to drive a manual 4 x 4, driver’s side on the right and driving on the left. Doors locked at stoplights (for human opportunists) and in national parks (for baboon opportunists). I joined a gym since running (as a lone female) is a little complicated. I went for the first time yesterday and it’s been a while since I’ve been exposed to gym (moreover Ladies lockeroom) culture. I saw a woman sitting on a bench texting madly and completely naked. Shoshin, shoshin, shoshin.

• Food: Woolworth’s or “Woolies” is foodmarket oasis for me. I feel happiest in the bakery, cheese, and wine sections. Lots of organic options. Many of the Woolies are also department stores, so you can potentially put your sheets and meats and shoes and booze in the same cart. I got a bread maker and some other kitchen goodies, so I am cooking and baking a lot. Sol Café is my imaginary restaurant and bakery. I am the head chef, sous chef and busgirl. Today, I went to a market in Woodstock that had everything from springbok burgers to handmade dinosaur plushies. I watched a young man at the “New York Bagels” vendor mindfully paint the cream cheese onto each crusty bagel canvas. The line was long, but I enjoyed watching him.
  

• People: 4 million of South Africa’s 50 million of Africa’s 1 billion live in Cape Town. Black (mostly Xhosa), White (Afrikaner, German, French), Colored (Cape Malay), Asian (Chinese, Indian). If you think you know what a South African looks like, you don’t. Coined by Nelson Mandela as the Rainbow Nation, South Africans defy stereotypes and homogeneity. 

• Entertainment: I went to go see a movie last night and when you purchase your tickets, you actually pick out your seat on the computer screen (like a concert) before you go in.  The Waterfront is a bustling and safe place day and night. Shops, restaurants, stages, and a giant ferris wheel line the harbor. It’s Cape Town’s own Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market.

• Animals: Hadeda Ibis calls I can hear throughout the day. At Cape Point, the Chacma baboons are beautiful, yet opportunistic, but there is one troop that is not habituated to humans, so I didn’t have to worry so much about them approaching me and taking whatever I had. Ostriches and bontebok (antelope) sunbathing and foraging on the beaches, cormorants flooding the rocks at Cape of Good Hope and angulate tortoises trekking conservatively along the side of the road.
  

• Landscape: I see Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak every day. They are all good reference points for orienteering around the city. Clouds seem to drape over Table Mountain in what is knows as the “tablecloth”.  Wind—there is plenty of it. I have to make sure that if I am wearing a cute skirt or dress, I am also wearing cute underwear because you just never know when the wind might put all of you apparel on public display.

And with that, I leave you all to embrace a Beginner’s Mind with something. Is there anything that your pride or need for expertise keeps you from learning or trying? I could probably make a list of 10 new things every day. May the Shoshin be with you.

Detroit to Dominica

Trafalgar Falls

“I have seen you somewhere before.”

“Oh yeah?” I say. “Where?”

“Either Canada…or Detroit.” He says.

Let me preface my next response by saying that I really don’t like making statements about a place I’ve never been…

“Well, you have not met me in Detroit. Nor will you ever meet me in Detroit.”

“Too violent?” He says.

“No, not too violent, it’s just…its Detroit. It has never been on my list of places to go.”

And then I felt bad. I thought about all the times people from New England said, “Houston, TX? I don’t think I’ll ever visit there. If I visit Texas AT ALL, it will be Austin.” Grrrrrrrr.

He stared at me blankly and then smiled.

This was one of my first conversations with Gilbert of Dominica. I was in that familiar yet foreign and surreal state of arriving in a new country, alone, exhausted and at night. 

For those of you who know nothing of Dominica, here are some basics.  It claims to be one of the most rugged islands in the Caribbean. And just from what I have seen in the last 24 hours, I agree. This is not the white-sand limestone, beachy plains and blue holes of the Bahamas. It is not the Sandals resorts or country buses of Jamaica. It isn’t the lobster and conch fishing communities of the Turks & Caicos. It isn’t the Spanish-speaking, German tourist-flooded streets of Sosua in the Dominican Republic. These Dominicans are different from those Dominicans.

Emerald Pool

Dominica, in my opinion, is the supermodel of the Caribbean islands.

No, wait—that’s Eleuthera, Bahamas.

Dominica is more like the youthful Marilyn Monroe of the Caribbean islands.

She is breathtakingly gorgeous, politically tangled, beautifully rugged, hot, gushing with energy, welcoming, layered, moody, curvy (so curvy you get motion sickness just looking at her), and maybe just a wee bit volatile and deep.

From Capuchin in the North to Scotts Head in the South, and from Colihaut in the West to St. Cyr in the East, Dominica is about 25 miles x 12 miles at it’s longest and widest bits.

The population of Dominica is 71,000, with about 20% of the population residing in the southwestern capital of Roseau. Sperm whales hang out here all year along with 22 or so other cetaceans that come and go from the area. There is no golf course from what I can gather.  And even I know that this is a big deal in the Caribbean. Even Eleuthera has at least the carcass of a failed golf course. 

There is a lodge (Cocoa cottages) centered around…chocolate.  There is a guided organic mushroom farm tour. Hiking here is as essential as going to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park when in Boston. Mountains, 365 rivers, waterfalls, boiling lakes, sulfur hot springs, orchid and bromeliad-littered rainforests, and fantastic people. I might never leave.

And yet…

And yet, Dominica hosts very few extended-stay tourists (75,000 per year). What they do serve are over 500,000 cruise-ship tourists per year. But these 75,000 pack a bigger punch as they spend over 3 times as much money as the half a million “shippies”.

This island has so much to teach the world. I have no idea what all of these things are because I have only been here for 40 hours, but I just know there are piles of wisdom; in the people, in the landscape, in the ocean, along the endlessly winding roads…I feel it in my gut…along with the motion sickness.

Snap

La Quinta in Daphne, Alabama

A little over two years ago, something in me snapped.

When something or someone snaps, it is implied to be unfortunate and often inevitable.
For several reasons, my life unfolded and as terrifying and so indescribably painful as it was, it just needed to happen. Inevitable, yes. Unfortunate, no.

Think about the mechanics of a snap (on a shirt or with your fingers). A certain amount of force must be applied in order for it to work. Once the force is applied, it gives way to sound...to a connection.

So, that's it. I snapped.

Once this happened, everything changed. My self perception and really my entire worldview shifted. I discovered that most of my time was spent straddling The Present Fence by lamenting the past or wringing my hands over the future.

I am trying (very hard) to walk the line of Today. Keeping an ear to the past for wisdom and and eye on the future for context, but to be here, right now is a daily, ongoing practice.  For instance, in the middle of this sentence, I just thought, "should I take the blue bag to Dominica or the red bag? If I take the blue bag, then blah, blah, blah."

In terms of my physical journey, my mom, dog (Hugo) and I traveled through 15 states in 4 days. MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA (Sleep Inn), MD, WV, VA, NC, SC, GA (cousin's house), AL (La Quinta), MS, LA, TEXAS. 2,100 miles. I think we passed 52 Cracker Barrels along the way, dining at 2 of them. Oaks, maples, eastern white pines, bald cypress, magnolias, and many unnerving signs reading:
Speed limits monitored by aircraft.



The next day I hit the ground running and made a sweet potato casserole on Christmas Day. We celebrated with friends ranging in age from 3-91 years young and a LOT of meat. Back strap venison, beef tenderloin, turkey, and stuffed quail. Happy Holidays y'all.

What am I doing?

This is what I asked myself both before and after I gave my two weeks notice on November 30, 2011.

I just turned 35. I am leaving the New England Aquarium (AKA, Safe Haven) for a life (possibly) not as safe. I am selling most of my belongings. I am leaving Boston after 8 years, but I am ready despite any instinct to hold on to the railings.

I'm coming out of the sessile closet. (Even though I have always been walking in and out of it for years...)

I am a nomad. It isn't a disorder.
I'm like plankton, only a little more intentional.

I was born this way. I travel. I change. This is what I do. It's in my marrow.
If I were a superhero, I would call myself Nomadamorphose. My superpower would be to be anywhere in the world I wanted at any given time and be automatically fluent in every language and dialect.

My hope is that if you are reading this now, you will check in every now and again and read my stories. I have no idea what they will be about.  I can only promise that I will be somewhere in the world and share something worth writing about.

If I am somewhere in the world and you want to hear a story about something (anything) associated with that place, then let me know.  I'll see what I can drum up.