Island time

5:40 am – wakeup. The sun rises delicately and birds substitute for the frogs’ songs.

6:00 am – breakfast. Rather than “bon appetite,” we recite a zen Buddhist blessing for food (specifically gruel). “S” makes an otherworldly oatmeal which we pair with Hawaiian Christmas-berry honey, homemade yogurt, flax meal, sesame meal, and boiled coffee. Huge amounts of food are eaten at breakfast. Not a small bowl, or two, but rather servings of easily 1 litre per person. Fuel!

We consider the day to come, discuss what area needs weeding, which tree needs pruning, where to harvest the collard greens today.

7:00 am – get to work. Today, S and I spent the morning strategically cutting down a large Christmasberry tree. The tree was preventing sun from accessing young fishtail palms – a much more desirable plant due to its ease of maintenance. The farm doesn’t use any electric, pneumatic, or gas-powered tools – that means the chopping is up to an axe and some pullsaws. Axing is heavy, sweaty work, and after the falling tree nearly knocked S’s head off, we were done. The lopsided trunk still needs to be moved, cleaned, and stripped of its leaves (for mulch) – but that’s tomorrow’s project.

10:00 am – smoothie time. S makes incredible iced smoothies – a delicious drink after hot work. Today’s smoothie included soy milk, almond milk, vanilla (from the farm), bananas (from a neighboring farm), and fresh allspice berries (from the farm – these look like blueberries and have a much tamer allspice-flavour than the brown powder from the store). Again, servings are huge – probably 1-1.5 litre of smoothie per person.

10:30 am – it starts to rain. Time to chill and read whatever C has picked out for me that day (he has found every Nabokov novel on the Island for my reading pleasure).

12:00 pm – call home, emails, other things that require cell service (which is best after it has rained).

12:30 pm – more work. If it is raining, like today, stripping cardboard boxes of plastic tape and nails (in order to facilitate composting) is on the menu. Sound boring? Yes, it is. But every second of every day can’t be a rollercoaster of excitement.

2:30 pm – siesta (with raindrops hitting the roof).

3:30 pm – read, pick fruit (mangos are in season), hitchike to the beach to swim or snorkel.

6:00 pm – usually, dinner. This meal is a more extravagant affair, with five or six dishes shared at the table. Last night’s dinner was ryeberry and pimento porridge, pinto beans and garlic, collard greens, potato-carrot-onion-kale-spinach-soybean-pinto-garlic-collard soup, homemade wheat bread, fresh coconut flesh (which, at its best, tastes like beautiful avocado [I found out yesterday]), and millet.

6:45 pm – meditation. S and C are zen Buddhist and practice serene reflection medidation. We sit in a small, dark library, each in a corner of the tiny room. We sit on small, circular cushions called zafus which themselves lie on a larger, flat, square cushion called zabuton.

C gives an “intention of merit” statement before we begin. Once that is said, we stand up, facing the wall to which we will sit, and bow. Then, we walk 180 degrees and bow once again. We sit down, pause, and listen for S to lightly hit a small bell twice. We bow once more, still sitting, and begin meditation.

If you want to know more, I’m not the right person. I’m quite a useless meditator, but I try to improve each day.

7:15 pm – a clock-bell rings in the distance, indicating the end of meditation. We stand, complete the bowing sequence, and pack up the pillows. We usually grab a snack – a banana, papaya,   bread – before preparing for bed.

9:00 pm – in bed, listening to the frogs, wondering what the Hell weird, cool, new things are coming tomorrow.


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