Two Yogis One Love: Guatemala in Pictures

We've been back in Texas for about a week and Dustin is already back to work. While I'm searching out employment, I've been longingly scrolling through pictures of Guate (tear) and placing myself back in the forest in my meditations. The transition has had its ups and downs and a few things have been brought to my attention that are vastly different stateside than in the Forest. Here's a few before we get into the pictures:

Energy consumption. We run off of solar power in the Forest, so we are always watching the numbers and having to unplug devices. Back in Texas, it seems we take our energy for granted. I feel it's my duty to constantly turn off lights and unplug chargers that aren't connected to anything. If you have something plugged in (computer chargers, phone chargers) and they're not feeding the device, they're still using power. Unplug those bad boys and conserve!

Water consumption. I feel bad taking a shower and leaving the water running. In the Forest, I would get my body wet and turn off the shower to wash, turn it back on to rinse and so forth. No one was telling me to do this, perhaps it was because the shower was so dang cold. And for those of you keeping up, even with the invitation of warm showers, I'm still sticking to the cold ones. I'm super grateful the Forest psuedo forced me into this, cold showers are super refreshing.

Food waste. Composting ensures that all food waste is used, whether we're feeding rabbits and chickens or just creating compost to enrich the soil. When making a salad here in Texas, it makes me feel bad to throw the scraps in the trash. It's not doing the environment any good and it's creating a stinky trash. I look forward to creating a compost bin with Dustin when we get settled in our own space. Not to mention packaged food. Packaged food creates so much waste it's unbelievable, and it's all processed. I'm back in the battle of the convenience of crap food versus the time and effort of eating fresh. How nice it was to have a fresh meal three times a day, sigh... On the flip side of this, I've been on a soup kick and made a delicious carrot and ginger soup followed the next day by a sweet potato and beet soup that looked like Christmas in a bowl!

Slathering chemicals all over your body. Products, products, products. And so many SMELLS! Make-up, hair product, perfumes, skin products, shampoos, conditioners, products for animals, all of these things being soaked into your skin, the largest organ of your body.

As I step off of my conscious living pedestal, please take a moment to enjoy some of the wonderful sights from Guatemala. It's an understatement to say I miss living in this spiritual land and we will undoubtedly be back again one day.

This is the tea temple set up in the Sacred Circle at The Yoga Forest for our one year anniversary celebration. It's a modified version of the tents that are now set up for our traveling campers.

Dustin working hard to grind coffee on the molina. This is also where we grind peanuts for peanut butter, corn for fresh tortillas and garbanzo beans for hummus.