stone archway at Mayan temple ruin (Coba, Mexico)
We arrived home late last evening and part of me still doesn’t feel quite back even yet. I saw a photograph of this archway before I left for our vacation and really wanted to be able to walk through it. Many of the Mayan ruins (like Chichen Itza) are so restored and commercialized that you can no longer walk up, through, or into, the structures themselves, but Coba was (gratefully) very unrestricted and accessible.
It’s funny how (in retrospect) I can see what expectations that I had (really always have had) for “vacation”. I remember when I saw this archway thinking that if I could walk through it I would feel instantly transported and elevated spiritually. I did walk through it, and climbed the huge stone pyramid, and breathed in the atmosphere….and through it all, and through all of our days floating in the turquoise water, I came to the conclusion that nothing on the outside makes any difference to my inner life….there is no place that I can travel to that will change the inside of me, without me first initiating or being open to that change inside.
I AM the filter for all “external” experience. It is my mind/my thoughts, that will determine if I have a life-altering experience or not…. and this can happen in Tulum Mexico, or in my living room in Cambridge, NY.
I loved being on vacation with my family when I was feeling relaxed and at ease inside, and when I was tense and irritated and blaming something (like the airline) for my discomfort, it didn’t really matter “where” I was.
So I am home again, and the huge gift of this time away was the knowing that I carry, that we all carry, everything that we need for full and expansive lives, right inside of our own wonderful hearts.
“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle“. Paulo Coelho
