Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart_ A Novel - Alice Walker [51]
Is there such a thing as jungle hen? asked Rick, seriously. He was studying his bowl, which was made of wood, and inhaling the aroma of the broth before drinking it.
There is a small farm not very far from here, said Armando. The woman raises chickens to eat and to sell. We brought chickens into the forest with us, only you did not see them.
Were they in a separate boat? asked Kate.
Yes, said Armando. They came in the boat that also brought the platanos and the grains.
The banana and quinoa diet is getting a little boring, said Missy.
That is why tonight we have broth, said Armando. But tomorrow, just like always, our one meal of the day will be one boiled platano and one bowl of grain. If you are tired of quinoa you can have rice or millet or oatmeal.
Missy made a face.
We will all be so slim, said Kate. We will be like Bette Midler in Ruthless People.
Oh, I loved that movie! said Missy.
You are all talking a bit too much, said Armando, who had cautioned them from the beginning to stay out of popular culture and in their own interior worlds.
When you are caught up in the world that you did not design as support for your life and the life of earth and people, it is like being caught in someone else’s dream or nightmare. Many people exist in their lives in this way. I say exist because it is not really living. It is akin to being suspended in a dream one is having at night, a dream over which one has no control. You are going here and there, seeing this and that person; you do not know or care about them usually, they are just there, on your interior screen. Humankind will not survive if we continue in this way, most of us living lives in which our own life is not the center. You would not drive a car looking out the side window, would you? Yet that is what it has come to for many human beings; they are driving their lives forward while watching what is happening along the road or even in the rearview mirror.
So on this retreat with Grandmother, not only will we observe as much silence as possible, we will also spend our time in connection with our interior world.
I find I am talking with everyone, Kate said to Armando when he visited her after the light, delicious meal. Is it a problem?
Armando had brought her a pitcher of green water in which to wash herself. It was purified water in which leaves of a plant had been crushed. She was to pour it over herself, from head to toe. The bits of leaves were to be left on her skin to dry. Armando explained to her the reason shamans knew which plants were good to use to help people heal. It is simple, he said, the plants themselves tell us. Either in dreams, or in meditation or by accident. He laughed. Sometimes you will find yourself chewing something, a leaf or plant stem you picked up in the forest, that makes you feel so much better!
This will cleanse your skin so deeply you will feel your pores breathing, he said. You will breathe with the forest. Actually all of the body was meant to breathe, naked, with the environment, he added. Not just the face.
I do not think it is a problem if you talk with everyone, he added, after showing her how to rub the medicine over her skin. Do you realize that in every group there will be one person who is afraid to go to Grandmother and one person Grandmother does not want to talk to anymore? She does not need to tell you anything more. She has told you everything you need to know. What you need to do now is listen. To accept. I have observed you with the others; they seem to talk far more than you. I think it is okay, he said. We never are sure how the medicina is going to work. What it will call forth. If you maintain respect for the medicina and for the sacred space of healing and also for the story you are hearing, all will be well.
His Streaked Reddish Hair
His streaked reddish hair was beginning to reveal dark roots.
Each morning before sitting in circle Rick jogged through the jungle to a wide place in the river, ripped the towel from around his neck, his only attire, and plunged in.
Aren’t you afraid? they