I learned that love can come at the most unexpected of times, and that love cannot be forced. Before Ecoversity, I spent the previous half half year travelling through Canada, western Europe, and South America, finding myself through new experiences and time alone. All the while I yearned for love and wondered if and when I would find someone. In the first couple weeks at Ecoversity I got so frustrated with all these thoughts, with always wanting something more, with not enjoying the present. So I let go - of these thoughts, of expectations. In the following weeks I went on adventures and spent time with a wonderful woman in my program named Julia. . .and a new love grew. It seems that some important things in life cannot be controlled; you can fight against these happenings or you can go with them. Hard times, love, ups and downs. . .they seem as natural to me as the seasons.
I learned that everyone's an artist; as we grow older we often tell ourselves we're not. I was a bit afraid of the whole art of painting. It seemed overwhelming and beyond me - mixing colors; making something look good from afar using hazy detailing; actually painting something in particular, like a body, as opposed to just doodling and drawing whatever comes to mind. The last two weeks of the Earth Based Vocations program composed the Land Arts and Activism section. We spent the who
le second week of that section painting 3x10 foot banners that would grace the roadside with color and intrigue. What to put on these banners, we wondered? Well, there's an old Spanish song that I learned at Gaia Ecovillage in Argentina that goes:tierra mi cuerpo
agua mi sangre
aire mi aliento
y fuego mi espiritu
It means earth my body, water my blood, air my breath, fire my spirit. I thought this poem pretty well sums up what I wanted to express in a banner: the intimate connection that humans have with the earth. Plus, there's a significant Mexican population in this area of Santa Fe, so we liked the Spanish connection. Julia and I took the "aire mi aliento" and "fuego mi espiritu" lines to use for each side of a banner. Each side took one day to make, and I couldn't believe what we, as amateur painters, were able to create.
