Gozo y tristeza vienen del mismo lugar...

...I’m learning this as I return from a whirlwind fun spring break trip to the northern dry forest of Guanacaste (snorkeling in the coldest water I’ve ever swam in, camping on the beach, bioluminescence in the water, singing under the stars)

and then to Nicaragua (a night in Granada, then on to Matagalpa and Samulalí, where Emily has a host family who we stayed a couple of days with (hiking up to an incredible lookout point, cooking over fire, a Catholic church service to celebrate International Women’s Day).

We were exhausted and exhilarated from this trip, traveling just Emily, Molly and me, and when we got back to Granada we got a message that one of our beloved professors had died very suddenly in an accident.  So now, when people ask me about our trip to Nicaragua, it’s hard for me to remember all of the good parts because that obviously put a damper on the very end of it. 

The three of us got back to Monteverde in time for her Quaker memorial service on Sunday afternoon.  It was a beautiful service, after which the whole community shared a meal and watched videos that Pati had made for her bio music (this should be the right link to her youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/flordekamot) and slideshows of pictures of her.  I got to meet her father who shared lovely stories about Pati—from what he said, it seemed like from childhood Pati lived her life to the absolute fullest, loved exploring, and dove deeply into every project she thought up. 

It’s tough being at the Institute these days because of this.  We all still expect her to walk around the corner and greet us with an “hola amigos!” and a smile.  Her pictures are up all around the Institute.  All the staff members are doing a remarkable job of taking care of themselves and being there to support the students with whatever we need.  As always seems to happen when a community experiences a loss, we’ve all grown closer and there is even more love in the air than I was already feeling here. 

Y por eso, digo que el gozo y la tristeza vienen del mismo lugar.  Alguien compartió eso en un Meeting cuando una muchacha de la comunidad murió hace unos meses.  Y es verdad: sin haber vivido la tristeza, no se puede encontrar gozo, y sin el gozo, no se puede ver que puede sobrevivir alguna tristeza. 

Love, abrazos, y besos,

emma