Oh, no! It's true! You've been put on yet another
email list! I hope you don't mind. It's the "list of people Asha loves and
wants to keep in touch with." You all know how it goes. I can't write an
individual "here's what I’ve been up to" email to everyone, so I’ll
send one out to all of you. If you want an individual email, you'll just have
to write back to me!
So it's been almost 2 weeks in Mexico now. I’ve been
sick the whole time. It's been great. No, really. I must have caught a bug on
the plane because it hit me the second day I got here. All your typical cold
symptoms. At first I tried to fight it. I'd rest a while and take my tinctures
and then try to get up and work in the sun. Every time I did that I relapsed
terribly. Eventually when I spent 2 days with a fever and could hardly get up,
and that's when I really gave in. I gave up the idea of being any help
whatsoever around the ranch and just embraced spending my time reading,
writing, sleeping, laying in bed feeling the soft covers around me, drinking
tea, meditating, and taking slow, easy walks up the hill at sunset. So it
became kind-of a spiritual retreat time. I even lost my voice. My dreams have
been meaningful and usually vivid and happy, and I feel like every issue inside
me, small and large, has come to the surface to be gently explored and healed.
Not what I expected, but it's been great. I guess I needed it. It's not easy to
pick up and leave your entire life. I guess I should have expected that letting
go would be a process. But as my body releases the illness, I feel like my
spirit is releasing what it needs to, and I feel a lightness and joy that makes
me smile and laugh (even as I cough!) and look ahead with complete trust.
Heather said to me yesterday that she's never seen such a happy sick person.
The land here is beautiful. A gentle breeze keeps the
warm sun in check, but the nights are cold enough to send me under a warm
mountain of blankets. The sunsets are the most beautiful I’ve seen since Goa,
and the pine-covered mountains rise around the ranch, full of trails to
explore. It's a 3-mile hike (or truck ride) to the paved road, where we can
catch a ride to the puebla of Valle de Bravo, a beautiful little Mexican
tourist town (few foreign tourists) that bustles on the weekends but is quiet
during the week, when it's just the locals around. Hangliders soar from the
mountains above to land by the beautiful lake next to the town.
Before I gave in to my illness, I was helping out with
the organic gardens (sending hundreds of little dandelions and chickweed to and
early death!), re-digging stairs down to the kids' cabin, cooking, and
"mowing" the tall, dry grass with a machete (blisters! ouch!). The
first group of kids is coming next weekend, but unfortunately it will also be
the last, because the project is ending earlier than anyone expected. In a
nutshell, one dishonest and seriously unhealthy person with control issues
messed a lot of things up and the group is losing their land. It's too bad,
too, because everyone else in the group is absolutely wonderful and has worked
so hard here. They may reform at some point to do a similar project on
different land, without that person. She is away now so the vibe at the camp is
really nice. It's amazing how much destruction one person can accomplish.
I’m either going to head to Guatemala on a bus this
week, or I’ll stay until after the camp to ride down with Heather, Hugo, and a
couple other folks, exploring southern Mexico along the way with locals who
know it well. My voice is almost back and I’m feeling a lot better, so I think
I’ll be ready for whichever path beckons.
I love you all and think of you often. May passion and
magic follow you throughout your days!
Love always,
Asha | 
