Opatija, Croatia 2016
Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes.I turned 40 on August 1st, celebrating it in Croatia right now, and a backflip into the Adriatic Sea near Opatija. Thank you Matek.
Update to this blogpost - January 2020: Little did I know that this backflip was a sign of what the next 3.5 years would bring me until today. Full of gratitude for this exponential growth in a process that has made me more humble, vulnerable, focused and has allowed me to leave narratives that did not belong to me behind, in addition to healing my relationship with Colombia, my motherland, and allowing myself to be reborn here. Re-cognizing myself constantly is perhaps the most profound and transformative process I have lived through so far and I have not done it alone, but with the help of great teachers. Grateful and full of love for the mystical connection I have with the natural world and spirit, for my Colombian tribe, my family, and my tribe around the world. Thank you.
“Živjeli!"
Croatia I love you so much. What a beautiful, lush, welcoming, delicious country, Nature looks so happy. Croatia also has the sweetest and liveliest "cheers" I've heard so far: Živjeli! (Read: jivilly)
In the last month since summer started, Juno arrived in Jupiter after cruising through space in a few epic spins for 5 years, humans celebrated independence days on July 4th in the US, 14 juillet in France, on July 20th in Colombia and at the same time, as apparently July calls for revolutions, humans killed each other in Turkey, Nice, Syria, Munich, and a handful more places overwhelmed with fear, anger, hate and greed. Humans have also been born, my cousin married, others have graduated high school, teenagers have had their first orgasms, humans have died of sickness and old age, humans have loved, explored, invented, imagined, created, fought, helped others, built, loved, lived, voted, laughed, cried, felt lost, understood new aspects of their lives. Some have won, others have lost. In the last few months there was also a coup in Brazil. I am certainly forgetting some place I didn't hear about and of course there were many more things happening on Earth.
In the last year since my 39th bday I went to Jamaica, walked over burning coals with the Love Tribe at Unleash the Power Within with Tony Robbins, I faced some of my deepest personal fears and limitations, my relationship deepened in a way we didn't imagine, we skied in Mammoth, I traveled through the redwoods in Mendocino to a magical lake to write and cook for 3 days, went to a deep Tantra meditation workshop at @Esalen for 6 days, woke up each day to hotspring baths, breakfast on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and deep meditative experiences. We also went to a friend's wedding by the river in Yosemite and I also traveled with Paul Redman, director of @ifnotusthenwho to the Amazon jungle to accompany him to shoot a short documentary story on how indigenous people are the only solution to protecting forests. Since July 9th I've also done LA>Paris>Morocco>Warsaw>Croatia.
However grateful I am for the opportunities, the long work hours, the delicious meals and moments, the creative drive, the gifts, the love, I am everyday more in awe at the great mystery that organizes our world so perfectly. I show up everyday, aware, appreciating every moment, my thoughts, my words and my action turned on and aligned, yet constantly in awe at the internal order that Life seems to have, which seems to come from a place beyond my planning, that perhaps has more to do with my participation, my emotions, my thoughts and my communication. Despite the appalling events that shake our world, as I travel through Europe I see, taste and experience beauty, love, faith, hope, desire, joy, kindness, courage, insight, hospitality, compassion and all those great emotional states that keep us high on life. I see Nature thriving and spectacular just the way she rolls on our planet.
How do we participate more in our world from a place of high emotional states, how do we cultivate more patience, love and understanding of ourselves first, of the humans around us, of our planet and the natural systems that make it turn? How do we more actively help each human around us with wisdom, insight, awareness, kindness, a simple smile or even a simple new idea? And most importantly, how do we do that from a place of love for life and everyone and everything in it?
These are some of the questions I ask myself today as I feel it is more important than ever to rise up to live our lives remembering where we come from, who we are, present and attentive, as we lend a wiser and more loving hand to everyone around us with whatever gifts that we have.
I believe the only detox/healing we really need is emotional. As we listen and pay attention to our body, our mind, our emotions and we connect to Nature, we start riding the natural great mystery that has kept our planet so spectacularly perfect for millions of years. Why follow some recent human imagined orders that disconnect yourself from Nature and her cycles?
August 2nd was a full moon, and from the campground in Valun on Cres Island, we saw so many stars, a couple shooting stars and even the Milky Way, all shimmering through the olive trees. What a luxury today, to witness the starry night sky. How beautiful and soothing would it be to be able to see the night sky like that more often.
"We are in space. No one knows what's going on. I love you."
Big love.
Tomás - Croatia August 5th