When I began this series of posts, I intended to have a new one on-line each day for seven days. I wanted them to appear as a modest yet tidy serial that mirrored the seven days of respite I had between the end of training and re-entry into life in Ghana. But, alas, I have been thwarted — thwarted! — by Vodafone, our inconsistent internet provider, and the equally inconsistent Electricity Company of Ghana. So I'm gonna dial back my ambition and aim only to make seven consecutive posts that appear, uh, sometime....Sorry about that, folks.

Day 2 Tuesday

COMMUNITY and the KINDNESS of STRANGERS 

The KINDNESS of STRANGERS 1

Here’s one thing I learned recently: When Cameron Tukapua offers you her house at the beach, well, merde, I suggest you take it. Cameron has left me clothes, poetry, an eye bag, a yoga nidra cd, tourist info, and a boffo practice space. She filled the fridge with tapenades and sauces and soy foods and stacks of fresh vegetables. It’s as if she crawled across my tongue and cried, “Yes! Yes! I understand!” I think she made sure I was safely delivered to her door in senses that are more than purely literal; I feel immensely humbled that this abundance sits with me.

My beautiful borrowed practice space. But, wait, what's this....

...there's more!!! Hel-lo. Zee beautiful tub.

How did I end up here? I went to Cameron for an acupuncture treatment during training and she asked about my plans once the three weeks were finished. My plans boiled down to spending an undefined week somewhere in New Zealand. Her house was going to be empty at the same time. Voila. I have a plan.

Cameron’s kindness to me seems pretty consistent with how she lives. She travels between homes in two communities and lately has been spending considerable time in the Christchurch area to offer support to people who are traumatized or displaced by the earthquakes and re-building projects. Her approach speaks volumes about what holism might look like if we practiced community and compassion in the widest possible sense.

Cameron also has a book due out this spring. Breaking Open looks at new ways of relating as community and individuals in times of collective crisis and uses the earthquakes in New Zealand as a metaphor for some serious shaking happening on a global level. Check www.camerontukapua.com for info.

COMMUNITY in MACROCOSM

To begin, please bear with me while I state the obvious: Sixty or so strangers orbiting in tandem for an intense training that probes one’s mental, physical, and spiritual domains has every potential to become an epic blind date gone bad.

In yesterday’s post I outlined some of the qualities that marked this teacher training as exceptional. Specifically why it was exceptional is something I’ve spent some time mulling. Someone suggested that, given the seriousness of the earthquakes and the perpetuity of the aftershocks (more about that in another post), people disinclined to instability didn’t come. (Okay, well, that’s not exactly how it was stated. They said the “flighty” people didn’t come. I was trying to dress that idea up.) Someone else outlined that, astrologically, our training occurred at the optimal time. I like it. Roger that.

I’m kind of down with an explanation that synthesizes karma with culinary fundamentals to produce an unforeseen telos: sixty separate karma’s, histories, intentions, DNA profiles, or personalities (pick your weapons) plop themselves down under one roof (or into one crucible, as it were) and collectively operate at a rare, refined level. It was like someone decided to make soup with sixty ingredients and each was added in just the right proportion to make very, very good soup.