Taking time to Re-energize

When I started traveling, I noticed that it pushed me to grow and face fears because I was confronted with things I didn’t see every day. It was then that I decided to say “Yes” as often and openly as I could with all the new experience. This thinking comes in handy when I’m feeling lazy or tired and don’t feel like pushing myself to try something new.

Jacó was beautiful! It was absolutely what I needed at the time. A good weekend to go out and recharge in the sun … and I got to make my first daring move since arriving in Costa Rica. I took surfing lessons. It was such a thrilling adventure. In between the relaxing on the beach and relaxing even more in the hammock, surfing was a challenging. We found a school on the beach and our instructor, Gustavo, was fantastic. There were four of us in a class with our own instructors. They would walk us out on the wave and then tell us when to stand up. I must say … I was not very good. On land, I was as agile as a ballerina (maybe an exaggeration) but on the water, I fell all over the place. The others seemed to figure it out so quickly. Oh well, in the end, I was able to stand up and …almost…paddle myself out! It was such a thrilling experience. At first I was nervous that I was going to look like an idiot, but I made that promise to challenge myself and I wasn’t disappointed.

Our day trip to Volcán Irazú was a success. It was hard getting up so early in the morning; I fought myself the whole way. What we thought was going to be a lot of hiking turned into a short walk to the crater of the volcano and a very interesting photo shoot! We also meet some guys from the US who were visiting a film festival in Costa Rica. After the volcano, we traveled down to Cartago and saw Las ruinas – the ruins of an old church that has a little park inside. We also went to see La Negrita, which is actually the Basilica of the Angels. It was all quite beautiful. It was a sunny warm day; except when the clouds were out, then it was very cold. I had such a good time to reflect and I hope you don’t mind my sharing with you.

I found myself thinking that I had already seen so many beautiful sights, that I was going to grow complacent to the beauty that surrounded me. I was grumpy about being up so early and thinking that I could have stayed home and relaxed, but then I looked out the window and unexpectedly saw the most beautiful view out the bus window. I spent time thanking God for the beautiful sight and these are the insights He shared with me during my reflection:

 “In all this traveling, it’s easy to become complacent and become numb to the scenes that I walk through. To say this is just another mountain or just another beach. How unfair! Each ridge, leaf and wave was created into its own unique masterpiece. So it doesn’t matter if its your first time to the ocean or your fifth volcano this week, look on it with new and hungry eyes open to all that God has waiting.”

“If you hold your breath waiting for the most beautiful view, you’ll be breathless for the wrong reason. Instead look around, absorb the everyday and someday you might just turn around and have your breath taken away.”

I’ve also had some thoughts about what life will be like after this year of service. In the past couple years, I’ve been traveling and learning so much about the world. As I was lying in Jacó, I was thinking to myself “How am I ever going to settle? I want to experience everything! Take in all that the world has to offer! How will I ever decide where I’m supposed to be?” and God gave me this peace – “Don’t thirst for experience greedily, searching and hunting to experience everything. Thirst for Me and I will give you experiences that move your heart and form your mind.”

Well, these experiences were amazing and re-energizing. I hope you have enjoyed reading about them and I’ll hope you enjoy these pictures just as much!

Photos from Jaco

 Volcan Irazu/Cartago

Photos from my work at Posada de Belen