Well, we’ve been here for 12 years. We came to Belize clueless and naive to be wannabe farmers. So what have we achieved in all this time. We have fulfilled our main goal of reducing our footprint on the earth. We dig in the dirt, grow our own food, eat and cook our own food, live in a very modest wooden shack and catch all our own rain water for all our needs. We can build with sticks, we can start a fire and we can slaughter our own fowl for meat. Our doctoring skills have been put to good use with our practice of medicine without the need for numbers, blood tests and scans to make diagnoses (yes, you just need to know the human body and mind and ask the right questions to arrive at the same, or even more precise, conclusion as a machine). In short, we have become no-nonsense, pragmatic people who tell you what you need (if you ask) and not what you want.
Anyway, what’s next? This is Munchkin and Gnome Part 2:
We have decided to gather forces and find people of like-minded philosophy. In doing this, we have made a recruitment; he goes by the name of The Panda and he has moved onto a piece of our farmland. His goal is to reduce his footprint on the Earth. Our goal now is to impart our experience and knowledge to help him make this transition as positive as possible. The Panda will be posting his experiences on this blog so watch this space!
Our regular WordPress Followers will automatically get these new posts. My FaceBook Followers will have to go into our WP site (or follow) to get these new instalments. Undoubtedly, the Panda will publicize onto to his own FB account.
We have had heavy rains and we are surrounded by a sea of water, the Jacinto River is up and there are flood signs everywhere. The river floods onto our road every year and it looks like this occurrence is imminent. In addition to all this, the truck is behaving dodgy (oh how technical of me!) and the two tonne front gate is still done broke. In other words we are on forced house arrest!
In response to this, I lifted my arms up in the air and flailed them from side to side. Testily I said,
Gnome:
Gnome uses Linux so every morning we get a “Fortune Cookie” message on the screen. Sometimes they can be quite funny…today’s was:
A few months back at an Elixir Tasting at Cotton Tree Lodge, I took the liberty of describing the plethora of jobs that Gnome had undertaken in working independently on the farm. Not only has he been a medical doctor for 20 years but he is the on-site engineer, mechanic, plumber, electrician, farmer, soap-maker, wine/ liqueur maker, herbalist and generator of great and amazing ideas. One woman in the group after listening to the description said gleefully,
We have been hearing all sorts of weather predictions and looking at reports on the Internet with forecasts of hot, dry weather…forever (well, it feels like that anyway). This morning we were sitting down with our cups of tea (can’t take the Scottish out of either of us…still like a cup of tea to hit the spot) and lo and behold! Grey clouds gathered right over us and it started raining. What a relief! It wasn’t torrential but it was enough for the plants and trees to quench their thirst for a wee while. This is one of the longest dry seasons that we can remember. Every year, the season tends to end abruptly and we are usually left thinking,
The truth is that we are actually both very healthy and fit from this lifestyle…a lifestyle that we like to promote to all our patients…we reckon that the only way to give advise is to do it (not just talk).
Some of you may have noticed that Gnome has started posting up Haikus. I think that it is a good thing and it gives us a few giggles and guffaws. Often when we find something humourous, nobody else does so this one may purely be for our own benefit. Though we would be pleased if these were received with joy and release in your hearts too. 😉
So what’s our latest tout…or clout? Not only do we have Zazen duckies but we have Zazen soap! I have noticed that at some point, when we have done enough hours of an activity (Yes that 10000 hours thing), it evolves into an art. The other day, we had a moment of clarity whilst mixing up soap; we realised that by clearing our head of the internal dialogue (you know…the usual blah blah blah voice in your head) the soap mixes perfectly with no hitches. In contrast to this, when we are feeling chaotic, we get early thickening of the mixture and lumpy bits so that the soap has to be poured in haste. There you go…The Zen of Soap making by Munchkin and Gnome!!
