Behind the Beans!

HI Everyone!

Well, I am getting ready to wrap up my time volunteering here on the coffee farm.  I am getting very excited to be back in RI, at least for a couple of months.  For those of you who don’t know yet, I am coming back to RI the end of this month and will be moving to Maine at the beginning of January.   Always big changes, big changes!  I will certainly be able to share more about that to come, but for now I wanted to pass this link on to you all.  My roommate Jennifer is incredibly passionate about coffee and has been volunteering at various coffee farms around the world in order to get more understanding from the bean to the cup.  She’s started this coffee channel (Behind the Beans on You Tube.  I would love it if you guys check her out and support her efforts.  Not only will it give you a better education behind the scenes of your beans, but it will also give you a better understanding of what the heck I’ve been doing for the past five weeks working on a coffee farm!

Just go to www.youtube.com/behindthebeans.  I’m so proud of her for following her passion!! Anyway, thank you to all who have followed my adventures on my blog.   I plan to continue my blog during the next, colder, more northern leg of my adventure, so stay tuned!! I’ll see you New Englanders very soon! Beautiful day, Tracy

What should I be when I “grow up”??

Shouldn’t this question get easier and easier.  It’s always bogged me down.  I envy those who knew what they wanted to do from the beginning.  Finding a  job has never been that way for me.  Sure, I am passionate about children, literature, communication, people’s lives….. but what that actually looks like…. on a day to day to day to day basis, I don’t know.  Big changes are a-commin’, people, big changes.  More on that soon.  Let’s just say that I will be in RI before all the pretty leaves are scooted into piles and tumbled into plastic bags…. but I will not be there to see the spring thaw and the robin return.

PS

Congratulations to Lisa and Shawn!  Wish I was there to celebrate with you!

To Solitude

To Solitude.    By:  John Keats

O SOLITUDE! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep,-
Nature’s observatory – whence the dell,
Its flowery slopes, its river’s crystal swell,
May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep
’Mongst boughs pavillion’d, where the deer’s swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell.
But though I’ll gladly trace these scenes with thee,
Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refin’d,
Is my soul’s pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.

Season of Mist and Mellow Fruitfulness

Today, the first day of autumn, I am celebrating by….. mmmm…. by….. ????  Not really sure what I should do.  I like to celebrate the beginning of the seasons in a different way each year. It’s kind of private tradition with me.  My traditions include memorizing a special poem, buying a new toothpaste, new perfume, plating some flowers, they usually vary. I find rituals comforting.  I like recognizing milestones in the year.  This autumn, I find myself far away from my home, on a tropical island, in the mountains, on a farm, in the middle of nowhere.  Oddly enough, it still  feels like fall here.  Far away from the heat and humidity of San Juan, Adjuntas, were I am, is apparently called the “Switzerland of Puerto Rico.” Mountains, shade, cooler temps, lush green, all come together to create such a different feel than much of the island.  Sure, we’re definitely tropical and I can still were my little dresses and tank tops, but the nights get chilly too.  Which is good!  I like to forgo the need to shower three times a day and curl up in a soft shawl instead.

Mucho Gusto

In Spanish when you meet someone for the first time you generally say, “Mucho Gusto.”  I’m assuming it would translate into “much pleasure”.  Basically saying, “Meeting you, New Person, is pleasurable.”  You add pleasure to my life.  I like that idea.  One of the reasons I wanted to travel was to meet new people.  Inviting others into your life ultimately makes your own life larger, more faceted.   You grow, not only as you add a new dimension for each place you’ve visited, group of people you’ve met, or experience you’ve had, but the chance to acquaint yourself with someone unknown forces you to reflect on who you are as a person.  Having to retell your story means you have to reflect on what makes up that story in the first-place.

Given the nature of my life right now, I’ve had to meet and “acquaint,” or introduce myself a number of times. 

33

For those of you who don’t already know this, September 9th was my birthday.  I turned thirty-three years old on an island in the Caribbean.  Not exactly what I imagined a year ago, but I can’t express enough how strange and beautiful life’s twists and turns can be.  This year, as I prepare to leave my early thirties and shift into my mids, my plan is strong, slow, graceful movements.  I want to take the time to enjoy the feeling of living… each day, each minute, flowing into the next.  I thank God for who He is.

Couch Surfing

Ok, I realize that I haven’t posted too much in last week or so.  I guess I’m just kind of reserving my thoughts for the coffee farm.  I’ve already started getting to know the other WWOOFer at the farm.  She seems really nice.  Everything’s coming together  I’ve got a hat, some farm clothes, sunblock, bugspray, bandana, big muscles, and a Walt Whitman biography…. I think I’m ready to work on a coffee farm in the mountains for a while.  :)  I promise many more details in the future, not to mention pictures!  I can’t wait.

I Found a Finca!!!

http://www.sandrafarms.com/

Check it out!!!

It’s all I have to bring to-day

It’s all I have to bring to-day,

This, and my heart beside,

This, and my heart, and all the fields,

And all the meadows wide.

Be sure you count, should I forget, —-

Some one the sum could tell, —-

This, and my heart, and all the bees

Which in the clover dwell.

–Emily Dickinson

The Waiting Game

I am waiting to hear back from two farms that are interested in having me volunteer.  Waiting is hard.  Sometimes I feel like I’m always waiting for things to happen…. waiting for life to “start”.  Does anyone else struggle with that?  It seems we’re always rushing towards something….. graduation, getting a job, marriage, children, vacations, then ultimately retirement, and, ummmm, post-retirement.  Our society trains us to build our hopes on upcoming milestones, and I guess I’m well-trained.  Because my life doesn’t look like the “ordinary”, or conventional thirty-something American woman’s life, I often do feel like I am waiting for the next milestone.  My milestones just seem to be different from the job, husband, white-picket fence, and babies.  Maybe thinking so much about tomorrow stops me from enjoying the live-moment as much as I could.  Maybe that stops me from committing myself completely to today.  I don’t know, but I do know I am waiting again.  Waiting to hear the, “Sure!  We’d love to share our passion for natural and organic living with you!”  Waiting for the next step of the journey.  I like to think that I’ve made myself completely available for whatever comes; only those willing to even take the bus, have to wait for the bus to arrive.  I’m excited to see where the winds inside me will drive these sails.