Every day, moment by moment, we are in transition and renewal. Rarely do we pause long enough to put a framework around these moments in our lives so that we notice the subtle offerings of these transitions. Some transitions are bigger and more obvious than others. International travel offers that kind of remarkable reflection for me.
I recently had the opportunity to travel for three weeks in Peru. It was, in every cliché way, a trip of a life time. We hiked the land and the mountains, met amazing people, ate in people’s homes, visited their weaving and knitting coops, walked down streets with varied and impressive architecture, learned about and joined in sacred ceremony and ate incredible local fruits and vegetables.
The rich and varied colors of Peru, in every sense of the word, wove themselves deep into my soul and I have returned back to the Midwest with questions and an invitation for this experience to teach me, change me, and help me transition in ways unknown to me yet. I can feel the embrace of the women who danced with me to the sounds of a local Peruvian band. I can taste the cocoa tea, and my skin remembers the winds that careened up the river bed valleys and threatened to take my hat and sail it into the sky. I can close my eyes and feel the weight of the rains that soaked our clothes and hair in this rain forest climate.
In this vastly different climate and culture, I was once again reminded of how we are one globe, one people, one atmosphere, one in our shared oceans. We are unique and yet we are one. The relationship between the earth and its gifts for us is universal. In Peru we did ceremony to honor that relationship with the earth. The indigenous everywhere seem to have a ceremony to honor the earth in multiple ways but somehow many of us have forgotten or never learned to appreciate what Mother Earth has been giving us.
My experiences in Peru will continue to offer me many ways to transform and enrich my life. I will start with a more intentional practice of honoring Mother Earth, Pachu Mama, by remembering her desire to give and return to us the care and nurture we offer to her.
Janet Elizabeth Hartwick Sterk
February 2020
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