New Moon

Today we went to see the sunset, the mosquitoes were trying to devour us, so we moved on. On the way home we saw the new moon and all the colors of the sunset. I say that watching the sunset is all about watching the sun going down the horizon but my beloved says that it is all about the magical after colors and today it was just like he said.

The nights are getting chilly now and soon the winter will come. But for now, let us enjoy the nice cool nights and warm days.

SORAIROTAKE & MUNIN AOGAMPI

Finding the small colorful things in the middle of the forest is like finding treasures and pleasures for the eye and mind. These are my most recent finds.

WORLD HERITAGE - OGASAWARA

A quick note on news that happened months ago but that are still bringing tourists to the Island. Since Ogasawara was enlisted in UNESCO's World heritage list, TV programs and rich tourists have not stopped visiting the island to get a taste of the hottest news in Japan. It seems to be a big deal in Japan but I don't remember it being that big in Central America. Anyhow any who, the news are making the island people richer and busier. The slowness is not the same but hopefully it will cool down and bring the Island's pace back to down to earth. :)

Japan's Ogasawara Islands on UNESCO's World Heritage List

Friday, June 24, 2011

The World Heritage Committee has inscribed Ogasawara Islands, the Japanese islands situated some 1,000 km south of the country's main archipelago, on UNESCO's World Heritage List for the wealth of their ecosystems which reflect a wide range of evolutionary processes.

The property numbers more than 30 islands clustered in three groups and covers surface area of 7,393 hectares. The islands offer a variety of landscapes and are home to a wealth of fauna, including the Bonin Flying Fox, a critically endangered bat, and 195 endangered bird species. Four-hundred and forty-one native plant taxa have been documented on the islands whose waters support numerous species of fish, cetaceans and corals. Ogasawara Islands' ecosystems reflect a range of evolutionary processes illustrated through its assemblage of plant species from both southeast and northwest Asia, alongside many endemic species.

A total of 35 nominations, including natural, cultural and mixed properties will have been reviewed by the Committee, which is holding its 35^th session at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, by the end of the session on 29 June.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/766

BURBOT

"When the burbot (ling cod) was human, he decided to leave the land and become a water animal. So he started down the bank, taking a piece of bear fat with him. But the other animal people wanted him to stay and tried to hold him back, stretching him all out of shape in the process. This is why the burbot has such a long, stretched-out body, and why its liver is rich and oily like the bear fat its ancestor carried to the water long ago."
Richard Nelson - Make prayers to the raven.

September

The summer just passed like a quick breeze and now the autumn winds blow at night bringing the temperatures down. By down I mean 25 degrees Celsius, hehe. Back to the mellow days were you can either swim through literature and bathe with dreams or watch TV shows. I have been working 2 days a week and then all I know is that I have been swinging in the new hammock spot, watching TV shows, reading The spell of the sensuous, dreaming, sleeping, trying to surf, napping... etc. Rain has been a big topic these days, under our house there is a little valley and that turned into a river. One day we hope not to slide with all the mountain into the river of mud and die. We do hope that if we do slide down the mountain we park into one of those really beautiful beaches and claim it ours. 

I have been making new friends with our landlords chickens and fishes from the ocean. I find it that even though I seem to be reconnecting to nature and animals there is a strong fear to being attacked! The fact is that I don't know what is going through the mind of it and the mystery of it all is what creates the fear. That fear is the biggest wall to overcome not only from my side but from the other side. ( these days the topics at home are about eco-psychology and transpersonal psychology, so forgive the wacko ness)

Phaedrus

I am reading a book called the Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram. To me, the fact that somehow we are linked to nature and the energy of the world makes complete sense but to define it so beautifully as this book does just brings so much joy to my every day. It describes how in the ancient time human knowledge of nature (animals, plants, elements) were of great importance to live a holistic life, but since we started defining things and creating languages creating barriers and laziness to the soul and mind, we are now left with nothing but a huge wall between us and nature. Now we struggle to reconnect to the original language of the earth and have lost the mystic powers that really led us to being higher human beings. Anyways, in this book he quotes Plato from Phaedrus...

"If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls, they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves but by means of external marks" Phaedrus 274a