Update 4

 Dear Readers,

When you have grown up somewhere there is no need to picture yourself on a map. You have formed yourself around the world you live in, and in that way you know it. You may not be conscious of every tree you pass, you may not know its name but you have seen it before. You may not know each person you encounter, but in a way they are familiar even if their face is new. You become so comfortable within an environment that you can become complacent. You no longer notice the small nuances that make a day beautiful, a song that someone is playing, a mountain that embodies the countless thoughts of wonder that run through your head.  It’s a strange feeling to be suddenly plucked out of this environment, as if you were a ripe apple, and dropped into the basket of something so new, so different, so beautiful that you cant help but catch every detail, see every mountain and listen to every sound. In a way it can be distracting from going on with life. You think of yourself as a pair of eyes that has forgot their body. You can not help but stammer at the feeling of being oceans away from the place where every detail has been memorized, that is why you have grown to pass them by. As you feast upon this wonderful change, you come to remember where you came from with a resurrected light; you think about all the things you may have missed all the memories that make it your home. Suddenly you realize that this new, exciting place is not so different, the people are still humans, and the land is still the same earth. The sun that sets every evening is only a messenger that will shine upon the place you have left, and in time will return to you with the same everlasting light as before. In a way you have gone nowhere because you have not left yourself. You have not left the people you came here with and within their dynamic there is a quality that cannot be named, a quality that creates a nomadic peace.

I would like to thank our new teachers who have been so wonderful about coming in at this stage of our journey; Mathias and Lisl have been so great! We also have welcomed in a new apprentice teacher to stand by our lovely Raina, Tupac is an amazing addition to our growing community. We hope you are all doing well; we certainly are at our new home in Ecuador. Lot’s of love to you all.

-Siena Powers.

Happy birthday to Mateo he turned 19 on the 27^th! The day we flew to Ecuador (we got donuts in the airport, along with some strange looks)! Meredith would also like to say a happy 17^th birthday to Ali!

` Te de la semana: fresh ginger chopped into slices, with lemon grass leaves. Put in hot water let steep! Another good one is dandelion root; dandelion is one of the best cleansing herbs and is great for the liver. You can also eat the leaves in salads with some clover flowers that add some nice color and are a blood-purifying herb that is filled with vitamin C.

-A thank you to Marcea for teaching us about herbs and making salve with us, it was amazing!

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, if a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are we make them worse, if we treat people as they ought to be we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

-Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe