Colombia

When I pause from writing to gaze over the surrounding vista, I see an endless canvas of green formed into mountain peaks with a city lounging hazily far in the distance, before the landscape dissolves into the ocean. I’m in the mountains called Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the southern part of Colombia - my new home.

My partner Blair and I have been here since mid-May. Earlier this year, we both lost our rented homes in the SF Bay area due to the exuberant property value changes. What now? I thought that maybe it was time to follow my dream and visit Colombia. We packed up and gave away a lot of our possessions, and to boot, Blair’s amazing SF neighbor offered us free flight miles to anywhere in the world!

Why Colombia?

About two years ago, we republished in Positive News a story about Indigenous Peoples living in what they consider The Heart of the World. They worship the spirit of all life called Aluna. As I read their account, I started to cry - deeply moved by something. I thought that one day I’d like to visit this Heart of the World to find out what this ‘something’ was which moved me so. Blair, who loves Latin America and is fluent in Spanish, was game for an adventure.

Camila the dreamweaver


Photo: Camila (center) with Blair and Ilonka in Bogotá. Photo by David

Last fall I met Camila at one of Nemo's concerts in Berkeley. Wow, a Colombiana! Our new friendship was deepening by the minute as I was sharing with her my dream of ‘some day' traveling to the sacred mountain. She wanted to come along. I’m reminded of a proverb “People plan and God is laughing,” because none of us would have imagined that the events bringing us here would unfold so quickly and not just for a visit but to stay!

Smile Cards

One day, while sitting in a charming vegetarian café we thought up a plan to bring Smile Cards to Colombia. One thing led to another and, one month later, the cards in Spanish arrived. We seeded them at several cafés together with some bills explaining to the staff how this works. The cards were warmly received. Ximena, the manager of 'the charming vegetarian cafe' reported back that one day a woman came in who didn’t have enough money to buy something to eat. Ximena, who knew that the woman supported herself by cleaning houses, offered her a meal together with the card. The happy recipient welcomed into the idea, and planed to do something nice for one of her employers and to surprise them with a smile card.

Another friend, who witnessed this story, asked if we had some cards to spare for her eco-tourism farm. And yes, we did!

Gift Economy (La Economía del Regalo)

Rancho de la Luna, the house we’re renting, was meant to serve as a small healing center. Its spacious event room space overlooking the jungle has been whispering to us since we arrived, “dream, and let me be the space to hold these dreams.” Thus inspired, we started to offer events as a gift to the community. Blair teaches T´ai chi, and I Authentic Movement. We are also planning a regular Positive Cinema showing. Just like Karma Kitchen, we explain that the event is free - a gift from an earlier participant - and one is welcome to leave a contribution.

Event though gifting with no strings attached is an expression as old as these mountains, nowadays, with the pressures of consumerism - where everything has a price tag - it feels good, as an outsider to be offering this community a contradiction to ‘modern progress’ with the progress of generosity.

People often drop in on us unannounced. One time, lead by a new friend of ours , a group of young people came by. In the group was Kati, celebrating her birthday. We offered them cake left from my b-day a few days earlier! Afterwards, since it was time for Blair’s regular T’ai Chi class we invited the group to participate. They were so touched and excited, they started rummaging through their pockets to find us gifts. A moving scene for us when one of them asked if he could gift us with hugs since that’s all he had!

Viva less choices!

I arrived in Colombia with a backpack and a small suitcase. Not much room really, but enough for our originally intended two and a half month stay. Now, if you were ever to take a peak at me in the mornings in Cali, you would find me standing in front of the closet deciding what to wear that day. This (seeming) abundance was really a pain when I couldn’t decide what to wear.

I love clothes, and I love even more my freedom from being weighted down by them. Here, I’m really enjoying wearing my favorite handful of threads over and over with no wish to expand my wardrobe.

Positive News - Positive Colombia

So what’s next for Positive News? Some of you might know that we have not been receiving sufficient funding to cover the costs of the printed edition of Positive News. It looks like our last issue will come out later this year. What we would like to do, is to expand our online edition to include a new section `Positive Colombia.´

Colombia has been through a lot and the country serves as an inspiration to the rest of the world of what is possible — like a phoenix rising from the fire. We plan to showcase the stories of everyday Colombians and movements towards creating a more just, caring and joyful planet. Camila, whom we’re visiting in Bogota as I write, is a treasure chest full of inspiring information.

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When I was a child I associated Colombia with coffee. As a teen, it was drugs. Now, I think… the friendliest people in the world. This is what I wish to share with the world. Thank You people of Colombia!