Blog Full - Maurice Leavitt | Personal Essays, Travel Writing & Reflections

18 Jul 2022

Why Do People Travel? – Medellin, Colombia

by Maurice | posted in: Adventure, Personal Growth, Spiritual, Travel | 0

When I was first introduced to traveling, I was about 11 years old. My aunt and uncle in New York offered to pay half my airline ticket if I wanted to come to visit. I thought that was quite the deal and I saved up my allowance and lawnmower money and went. I was hooked from a young age. I continued to take advantage of my families generous offer many times as a teenager. I found a great appreciation for New York City as a young man.

My immediate family did not travel all that much. We did take a few vacations in my memory, but most of the trips were road trips. I think that is because I grew up in a family that had a scarcity view of life. Traveling did not give my parents a sense of abundance, until I grew up and out of the house when they felt they could travel. My parents did most of their travel through group tours where some travel agency took care of everything. A personal preference for sure.

Having an agency plan a group tour means that everything is planned out for you. Airline tickets, hotels, meals, private tours with guides who can do the translating… even with bathroom stops along the way <wink>. There is a peace of mind just knowing where you are going to and the places to see. There is a stop and start date and all you have to do is show up. A Club-Med vacation has never really been a thing for me. Group tours planned by an agency has a time and a place for sure.

For example, I found out I could swim with the sea turtles, penguins, sea lions and the hammerhead sharks… and the Galapagos Islands were the second largest marine reserves on the planet, I just had to go while I was in Ecuador. When I discovered all the rules for the Galapagos National Park, I realized the way I like to travel might possibly be a hinderance in seeing all that I could possibly see in a reasonable time frame. Sure, I could make my way to one of the main Galapagos islands and the town of Santa Cruz and plan something from there, like a woman I met on the airplane was going to do. However, a registered guide is required to accompany you everywhere in the national park. Plus, there are many islands, and you have to hire a boat to get there. It just didn’t seem very practical or economical to do it that way to get the best possible experience. I found an outfitter and a small cruise with 12 people and decided that would be the best way to do it. I did have some resistance to it which required my surrender. In the long run, I thought it was worth it.

Another example would be a rafting trip down Colorado River in the Grand Canyon which cannot be done on your own, unless you win a weighted lottery for a private permit and have your own equipment and hire your own guide. The bottom of the Grand Canyon is a harsh desert environment and many people have died making the attempt on their own. A Grand Canyon rafting trip I would recommend to everyone.

On the other side of the coin, there is something deeply satisfying for me having a chunk of time (weeks – months) to travel and buying a one-way ticket. With only a place to stay for a short time with ideas of where to go and what you want to be doing. Being your own tour guide by researching on the internet the history of the towns you are going and the places you want to see. Sometimes hiring a government registered guide for those places is beneficial, like in Varanasi, India.

Traveling this way, with a one-way ticket with not much of an itinerary brings its own set of challenges. You need to be self-motivated to do the research, face into any language barriers, get your own local transportation and find your drive to get up and go get ‘em every day. What it also comes with is a great amount of freedom. A kind of freedom that allows you to flow with what the universe puts in front of you. You never where the road may take you in life, you only have to be open to the opportunity and the possibilities.

Some of the best parts of this way of traveling is how you can reside at home-stays, hostels and meet many people you had no idea you’d cross paths with. I am typically one of the oldest people in the bunch because I think as people age, they appreciate their creature comforts of home and prefer things to be more predictable, rather than facing some of the challenges to be out of their comfort zone. When you meet different people, you never know where the roads might take you. Someone may be going somewhere you haven’t thought of going and you could pick up a travel companion for a while. Staying open and surrendering to what is in front of you, is the practice.

I arrived in Colombia after an unexpected detour in my plan and felt I needed a break. To take the day off and reflect and go grocery shopping and make a home cooked meal and settle into my new digs. I had to really force myself to stay put. There were many a voice in my head whispering… you must get out and explore because you only have so much time to do that… the feelings of loneliness creeps in as it would at times being home alone… the ambivalence and fears of the unknown, the language barriers… only to mention a few. There is not a group tour with a schedule that forces you out or gets you out of a funk… that is all up for you to get over.

Another example… I was in Quito, Ecuador and there was an outbreak of civil unrest. Roads were blocked, fires preventing travel, transportation strikes. I could not make it to the places I had wanted to go. Some people would even say it was a scary situation. Because I did not have a round trip ticket or any formal travel arrangements, I was able to adjust my plans and leave Ecuador and find another place I would like to go. I did not have to rely on travel insurance or have to deal with cancellation or change fees for hotels or airlines. It made it much easier to go with the flow. I know this is a bit of an extreme example, but it makes my point.

I am happy to talk about this with anyone and I encourage all my students that travel is the best form of education. It never ceases to amaze me how much I learn every time I step out of my comfort zone and into another grand adventure.

God Speed y’all!

14 Jul 2022

Love Has No Boundaries

by Maurice | posted in: Love, Poetry, Relationship, Sabbatical | 0

When I’ve opened up and reveal my deepest insecurities and speak the truth
I feel extremely vulnerable
And to protect my heart, I may show up as judgmental, self-protected, critical and full of fear
If I can recognize that within myself
I hopefully will see it as a sign and opportunity for me
To look internally at the obstacles getting in my way for acceptance and to love

If I am fortunate enough to be with someone I care for and love
Who can read between the lines and recognize when my communication
Is fear based
They may not take them on personally or get defensive,
And I become blessed by that someone
Given another opportunity to clear those blockages to love
Finding my way back to express affection in ways of loving speech

Any thoughts of my mind pointing outward is another sign
A tell-tale sign that I need to go inward, once again…the never ending voyage inward, again, and yet again
Because that’s where we all keep the valve of our history tightly covered up
Where buried things of the past are given a chance to take root if we let them
Trying to become fixtures of our false identity

These are the cries of the ego
The cries of the small self that only get louder and louder when its thoughts are fed to believe they are true
These thoughts get louder and louder, drowning out the whispers of love and the truth
When I allow and give myself the gift of quiet and stillness
I can begin to hear again the whispers of love in action

Is it really the sign I wait for, to get the permission to love I am waiting to receive from others?
There is no permission or any safety net to show my love
And to love bigger?

When will I realize that I no longer have anything to lose?
No attachment to any aspect of my self-identity…
No attachment to having to be seen a certain way…
Until I finally give myself permission to love again
Because I finally realize, once again that love has no boundaries
The false boundaries, only my mind and the ego creates them.

-ML

13 Jul 2022

The Price People Have Paid for OUR Freedom – Lima, Peru

by Maurice | posted in: Adventure, Family, Love, Personal Growth, The Human Condition, Travel | 0

If you are looking for some happy go lucky piece of writing from me here about my travels, then I would invite you to move along. This topic I am going to attempt to write about was a surprise and a harsh realization for me. This learning was accompanied by many tears, exhausting me one afternoon after being explained from a local friend their experience of fleeing from their home in Lima, out of fear for their lives. There were pieces put together for me from different events, places, and people… from back home in USA, Colombia, and Peru.

… and then I was invited to go to the Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion and a lot came together for me. I felt sad, ignorant, heartbroken, angry, and frustrated with the patriarchy and toxic (machismo) masculinity. Inside this memorial, wave after wave of emotion washed over me, I felt small, a foreigner/gringo, helpless. I felt the pain, grief, and tears of the people I know from South America and the ones I don’t know from the pictures and in their stories on the walls. I didn’t want to carry this around inside of me and thought I needed to write some of this out and see where it might take me.

There is a lot of information surrounding Peru’s political structure, economy, coca production, domestic violence, crime, and all the individuals and families and how they are affected by all of it I am going to do my best to give the most simple and complete picture from the perspective of the human condition, which is the most fascinating for me.

First, I am staying in a building in Miraflores, Lima, Peru where down the block, two truck bombs exploded, each with over 1000kg of explosives on 16 July 1992. There has been an ongoing internal conflict in Peru between the government and a guerilla group called the Shining Path. At the same time there was a Revolutionary Movement to rival the Shining Path. All this took place between 1980-1997, not all that long ago. The stories can get a little convoluted but that is the short of it. The sad part of the story is between 50,000 and 70,000 people were killed during this internal battle inside of Peru. The bloodiest since the Spanish occupation.

Second, after hearing a lot from locals about their first-hand experience with domestic violence, I had to ask the google baba guru. Up came a website with this information… “One in three women in Peru will likely suffer physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetimes, according to the United Nations. Violence against women is the most widespread form of violence in Peru, and it occurs across regions, income levels, education levels, and age groups”

Third, there is a significant amount of street crime that people are concerned about. Mostly directed against women, glittered tourists and people distracted by their cellphones. It’s something the local government is aware of, and they have street security on almost all street corners. Not full-on police with guns, but security who are connected to the police by their radios. This is not something I am particularly concerned about for myself yet; I try to have good situational awareness and I don’t wear any jewelry nor are any of my clothes of the Gucci or Armani variety.

Fourth, Covid protocol. Everyone wears masks here mandated by the government and people don’t make an issue of it. It does not seem to hinder anyone’s personal freedom. They even want you to wear masks outdoors on the street when there aren’t people around. You cannot get into any grocery store, market, mall, or the movies without proof of vaccination. I don’t have an issue with any of this at all. It’s a way people can protect themselves and others in the spread of this virus. Sure, I do find some of it over the top sometimes but, deep down I know that is why their covid levels are lower than most. Their health care system is free and aren’t as sophisticated as the ones back in USA and I think that has something to do with it as well.

What a dose of internal conflict, eh? It for sure is different than the endemic mass shooting problem, what happened to the native population in north America, the taking away of women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and the libertarians who think mask wearing is against the constitution back home in the USA.

This is only a small slice of what others had to pay, as a price for our/my freedom?

What does freedom mean to you? Freedom means…

To ability to travel freely around the world, un-incumbered!
To be able to lovingly stare at a mango to see its ripeness and see all the colors of the fruits at the local markets.
To watch your children dress themselves in all the colors of the rainbow and see them happy and be free with all their choices.
To tell lies to the police security to try to get inside where they do not want you to belong!
To look at people in their eyes when they tell you their feelings, emotions, and share their tears so you can take them all into your heart.
To be free to retire to another country, not because you speak the same language but, because the people there make you feel at home and happy with yourself and your choices.

Take that all in!

Lima, Peru Protests — Protests in Lima… for fair wages for government workers. The police closed down the main square.

8 Jul 2022

Cusco, Pero – Machu Picchu – The Ways of the Inca

by Maurice | posted in: Nature, Personal Growth, Spiritual, Travel | 0

As much as I have studied the great traditions and their mystical components, being in Peru, the Incas and shamans embrace the dualities in nature, the cosmos and in humanity. Humanity is the creation and product of the universe, so the expression “as above, so below” holds truth here. Except they would explain it as the rights of the mother (earth), Pachamama. That human beings are not the central and most important entity of the world.

The rights of the mother, Pachamama the earth mother, is the vision of the people in the Andean region of South America. This indigenous vision entails a deep respect for nature, not only at the level of human livelihood but also as a social organization and our vision of the universe – spirituality. In this vision, everything on Earth and in the universe has life, and a right to life. Humans are not superior beings who are above plants, animals, or mountains. Humans exist with non-human beings to form an Earth community.

Pachamama holds a variety of meanings. It is not the result of science, but the manifestation of the knowledge of the ancestral Inca culture, it is the complete coexistence of the people with all living things. It represents the whole of the human and non-human entities, from the human to the animals… from the plants to the rivers, oceans, and the rocks and the stars. She is the Mother Goddess… Pachamama. It is though understanding of our inner selves, our unique selves, and our own bodies, where it’s then possible for us to hear and listen to the Universe calling us, to realize our own laws of nature.

Western philosophy of today portrays itself as hedonistic, individualistic, and utilitarian thinking, and is only concerned with consumerism. It seems to neglect a lot of the importance of human socialization, physical and mental well-being, of solidarity as a collective, of love and mutual aid and rejects any idea of interdependence that humans might (or need to) have with nature. The human centered point of view displayed by western society sees humans as the only moral subject, the only bearer of dignity and intrinsic value… that it is humans who are the only central agent that can regulate actions, values, and ethical models. Western culture has transformed nature into a place where humans can proclaim themselves master.

Western culture is treating the earth as a thing, a grocery cart of items, that can be dominated, subdued, and exploited, with little concern at all for all animal and plant life and its suffering. It’s in our self-proclamation as the great ruler of the living world, that we have lost our way, away from our roots. We have forgotten that Nature is not just a marketable resource, but the matrix of all life – including human life. It is earths ecosystem that cradles us, feeds us, shelters us and keeps us alive. And yet, we are in perpetual war against life, with permanent dissatisfactions, consumerist appetites, and major human misunderstandings. Capitalism and the logic of for-profit business has taken precedence over any other societal objective. Threatening earth’s limited natural resources, biological diversity, ecosystems, and landscapes. The liberal-capitalist system is in the process of destroying the biological and physical conditions of existence. Pollution is raging, and while the climate is going crazy, the biodiversity of the planet is crying out for help. Nature has been stripped of its substance; it is not considered to be a source of metaphysical and spiritual meanings to which we are to understand, to feel, to symbolize aesthetically and spiritually, that nature has become a resource to be exploited, a “natural resource”, violated and abused.

A key concept attached to this indigenous philosophy is that of “Buen Vivir”, which is Spanish for “good living” or “living well”. In this concept I am talking about, it refers to the paradigm of living in harmony between human beings and nature. It implies a holistic and integrated vision of the human being, immersed in the great earth community that includes water, air and soil, mountains, trees, and animals. It is in fact a true harmonious symbiotic relationship, it is the affirmation of a deep communion with Pachamama, with all the energies of the universe and with God.

There is a rising new paradigm for change. A change to the world and its rules to build a democratic society more sustainable, fair, egalitarian, free and maybe, even, more human.

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