I am returning to post the blogs I wrote describing our trip to Brazil. Since they are already written and some of you have expressed an interest in hearing the rest of the story about our trip to see John of God, I have decided to share them with any who want to read them. I’m sure that it is understood why I have been diverted for these past two and a half months but I am beginning to find some balance in my life even though I miss his physical presence unbearably sometimes; his spirit is with me always. These four blogs that I will be posting in the near future were written while we were in Brazil or shortly after we returned home in July.
To read about the first part of our journey, read the earlier blogs titled: The Great Adventure–7/7/2013, A New World Opens–7/15/2013, Preparation For Healing–7/27/2013, and First Casa Day–8/4/2013.
____________________________________________________________________
THURSDAY
Bill is still resting but he gets up to shower and have breakfast and then it’s back to bed for him. I head off to the Casa for my surgery/spiritual intervention; I don’t have to be early today because I know that this line will be first after the folks go in for Currant. We are led through the Currant rooms to the final room and asked to sit and close our eyes; I am clutching my crystal wrapped in my written requests to the Entities. After about forty-five minutes, Medium Joáo enters the room and speaks to us in Portuguese for a short time; I recognize his voice from the day before. We sit for a while longer and listen to various prayers then we are asked to open our eyes and exit from the room. Kelsie is waiting outside for me but most of the participants are directed into the garden for directions from Sebastian, a volunteer of the Casa, he is short and rotund with a high, sing-song voice, he is dressed perfectly in white as are all of the volunteers. I ask Kelsie if I am missing anything and she says, “No, they don’t have guides to answer their questions about protocol after surgery.” We walk the short distance to the taxi line and I am back to our pousada within minutes. I immediately lie down for a long sleep, I am surprised that I can sleep so long after the good nights’ sleep I just had. Kelsie comes by with the blessed soup for both of us and then brings us our lunch. Bill still has until 3:00 pm to complete his twenty-four hours of rest and I’m just starting mine, which will last until 9:00 am Friday morning. I sleep and rest for the remainder of the day. Kelsie brings me dinner and Bill has dinner with her in the dining area then returns to his room for the night. It would be wrong to not say that Bill and I do have some short talks with each other but basically we are alone in our own spaces.
During my night it is strange to not do anything like read, use the computer, or write. I just sleep or pretend to sleep. Nothing strange happens in the night but then that kind of thing never seems to happen to me. I’d almost feel like making something up to make me seem more exciting and deep but I just sleep and dream, watch the moon and remember songs in my head. The next morning Bill brings me breakfast.
At 9:00 am Friday I’m ready to do some shopping or something. Kelsie and I decide to walk up “Rodeo Drive” to the highway where there is a drugstore. We have our umbrellas and hats to protect us from the sun. The numerous shops selling crystals, white clothes and jewelry are fun to poke through. About a quarter mile up the road bends slightly and this is where the tourist ambiance begins to fade. Looking
Shopping in Abadiania
down the side streets there are chickens and roosters running around free. There’s a skinny old white horse tied to a post with a cart nearby that I later see him pulling. There is more trash, although I see some trash containers, mostly the trash is on the ground around them probably pulled out by the numerous stray dogs running all over the streets. And there are the young men on the corner, acting like the roosters strutting around just like on corners all over the world. No matter what, you know they are making their observations of anyone who walks by.
Kelsie goes down a side street to visit the grocery store. It looks highly unlikely that there is a store down there but we part company and I walk quickly back to the pousada for lunch with Bill. Kelsie and Bill have decided that Bill will volunteer to participate in another spiritual surgery/intervention at 2:00 this
afternoon. I will walk with him to the Casa and wait with in the Assembly hall for him to go in and Kelsie will meet him afterward to escort him to a taxi for a ride back to the pousada.
I spend some time in the garden writing and at the bookstore purchasing some gifts of Casa Triangles and crystals. I find Brazilian Ruffles potato chips at the snack bar along with Ginger Ale and 7-Up sodas. It feels like a real treat. I guess I miss home more than I realize, it’s definitely fun to find something
Crystals at the Casa Bookstore
familiar. By the time I return to the pousada Bill is resting again and I have dinner with Kelsie. We are getting to know each other quite well. We gave her one of our books, Dig Deep in one Place, A Couples Journey to a Spiritual Life and she is reading it and we have read her book, John of God, a Journey to the Spirit World. Now we are elaborating on each of our stories. I am able to enrich her understanding of Twelve Step Fellowships and the meaning of the Twelve Steps and she is continuing to deepen my comprehension of The Casa and other spiritual paths she has pursued. We have a wonderful conversation.
Tonight, Friday night, I am alone because Bill sleeping in the other room and I get to use my computer to call some friends and do some research on Brazil that I have been wondering about. I have internet from the pousada next door, their internet café is essentially right below my room. It is amazing to be able to ask any question and get an answer, to be able to call home on Skype for under .02 cents per minute, and listen to any music that comes to mind.
There was a super moon the night we left Colorado, this is where the full moon appears to be larger than normal and it was spectacular. The moon is still full the night we arrive in Brazil but it definitely looks different, why? I am looking at it from underneath in the southern hemisphere, so if I stand with my back to the moon, lean back and while keeping my balance, gaze at the moon, I see the moon as it is in the other hemisphere. Ah, ha! Another interesting fact is that the phases of the moon rotate from the left to the right in the southern hemisphere and in northern hemisphere it rotates right to left. I looked up the constellations but unfortunately I was never able to get outside late in the night to actually see the Southern Cross. Part of the reason is that I am confused as to which way is north, I ask several people and no one is able to give me a good answer and I chew on the problem until it finally occurs to me that no matter where I am in the world, if I am standing looking at the rising sun, north is always on my left. Duh! Seems like simple observations but for me it always helps if I find orient myself in my mind as to where exactly I am on this beautiful planet Earth.
So ends our first Casa week in Abadiania, Brazil, next we have four days off until our next Casa days.