Lessons Learned from traveling in Colombia

Many of these lessons came out of work I did during an ongoing series of Ayahuaska ceremonies. At one point, while talking with a friend named Makensie, we were wondering "How do I carry this home with me?  How do I go back to the place where everyone expects me to be the way I was before, and be this new person I am now?"

And I remembered meeting another traveller who had written himself an epic manifesto of his intentions for his trip, and I remembered wishing I had done that for myself starting out my own trip. 

And in talking to my friend Makensie, I thought, "well let's write ourselves manifestos for going home and taking out lessons with us." 

So we did.  And here it is.  It feels especially right for me to re-write this here and now, as I think I need a reminder. 

LESSONS:

• I am not broken - I do not need to be fixed 
• (neither is anyone else, nor the world)
• No part of human activity is outside the ecological systems of the earth - including violence and destruction
• THINKING is the opposite of consciousness - to Dream and to follow our Dreams is to be truly awake and present
• input from dad: "thinking is a tool" which is true!  still not the same as consciousness 
• In order to change the world, all we really have to do is to DREAM - to heal ourselves, enable others to heal themselves, to learn how to embody love 
• But we cannot be awake until we are finished sleeping... 
• When we dream of violence, we create it in the world

HOW I CARRY MY LESSONS AS I WALK:

• I sleep until I wake up
• I dream my dreams, and follow their lead
• I dance/play/do yoga every day
• I am conscious of the flow of energy around me and I dance with it
• I do what I feel like
• I speak my mind without worrying about making other people unhappy or insecure (because sometimes, the act of asserting my boundaries might be offensive to others, and sometimes being offended/hurt/insecure is the work that other people are doing and I do not need to take on responsibility for that)
• I remember that Listening, Thinking, and Speaking are three different activities that cannot be done at the same time
• I do one thing at a time
• I pursue open, loving relationships with people am attracted to without a sexual agenda. 
• I move at my own pace
• I AM MY AUTHENTIC SELF
• I practice communicating without speaking
• I embody love

I have purposefully written these strategies down in present-tense action-doing grammar.  I certainly haven't yet internalized all of these things, but they are goals and guidelines for how I want to actively take responsibility for the course of events in my life.

Hmmm.  Repetition.  I am a slow learner.