Why do this?

Why do I write this blog? I hate the word but the format serves a purpose. It gives me a release for the need to write. I used to handwrite long letters to friends and family and send them off in the post. And sometimes they would respond! I just loved opening the envelope and then feasting my eyes on the lovely prose of say, soul-mate of gardening, Marjorie Swenson. Remember those days? Everybody loves opening handwritten letters from long-distant friends. There’s something about putting words to paper with a pen – requires ordering your thoughts. You are directing all your thoughts and meaning to your friend.
Then we all switched to emails. And everyone teases me about my long, often boring, sometimes tedious, rarely entertaining but always way too lo-o-oong, blah, blah, blah.
Well guess what pals? I’m not writing anymore emails except those one or two liners that everybody else writes – see u fri at 12pm, my house, xxooV. All my other blathering will be done here. Only close friends and family read this anyway and I’ll have a record in case my laptop crashes again.
My mission in life is El Tigre- that’s what I mostly write about. But the contribution goes well beyond me or words! When you stand on Tiger Hill and look at the hills beyond the forest, you can still see barren landscapes where decades of cattle ranching completely decimated the forest. Still, the forest advances from El Tigre and Rodeo Protected Zone. Other locals have decided to allow the land to regenerate naturally to forest. More and more people have stopped using the land for livestock or agriculture and allowing the forest to return. Neighbors don’t need to plant anything- the seeds come in via bird courier courtesy of Zona Protectora, El Rodeo. The forest is getting bigger! Someday, we imagine hooking up and becoming part of a wildlife corridor between El Tigre and nearby national parks like Caregre or even Carara!
Perhaps in my lifetime, the Jaguar might even return to El Tigre! Our dogs won’t like it but the idea is that there will be enough prey in the forest to support once again the big cat. Right now she is struggling even in huge forest areas like Osa Peninsula. I was furious a few years back when a crowd of ‘valientes’ killed a poor, confused Jaguar who wandered onto the hills of Escazu. They killed the last male living on that terrain! But there is hope even for a remnant forest like El Tigre! At the moment, reforestation is in fashion. Some people think they might actually get paid money for protecting a forest – kind of like getting paid a carbon credit from polluting countries. It really doesn’t matter to me what the motivations of forest owners. The forest grows!
And in a world that feels increasingly unstable and in places, verging on chaos, the forest is a comforting place. When I’m in New Orleans, feeling heartsick and missing El Tigre, Nancy Adams takes me to sit in her lovely garden uptown. It’s a magical place – you can sit in the midst of her flowers for hours. Perhaps everyone should at least have a potted plant to have some kind of connection with nature.
To me, nature is a conduit for waking up. It’s hard to put into words. Those who do The Work, describe waking-up as an experience following much effort and diligence of doing the Work…self-observation…casting light on behavior ….remembering self…becoming vitally interested in ‘what is’…facing bumps and shocks as a challenge. There is much to the Work that I’m not ready to write about. Those in the Work would admonish silence. Yes, I read Emerson and Thoreau.