L is for Leaf

A moment frozen in time. Sitting in the hills surrounding Cuzco, Peru. A shaman had come to visit with me and my traveling companions. The shaman is an ordinary man, a farmer. He was chosen to be trained as a shaman because he survived being struck by lightening as a child.

He has brought many symbols with him and is going through one at a time. Each one is presented and each one has a ritual attached to it.

He passed around a small back that has coca leaves in it. Each one of us was to take three leaves and pass the bag on. The woman next to me, took three leaves, but those were not her leaves. She looked at each one and fished around for jus the right leaves. That was not my method. I picked three leaves and those were MY leaves. And so it was.

A short while after choosing our leaves, the shman asked us to look at the leaves in our hands, Something happened within that moment. The world stopped. No distractions. No other thoughts. It was me, in Peru looking at coca leaves. Seeing each and every vein. Seeing the shades of green. Seeing how perfect it was just as it was. The world was so simple and beautiful at that moment.