Every Day

I love exploring new places with old friends. It may be one of the best feelings ever. Luckily, my friend and I both had the same spring break! Worked out perfectly! I landed in Tampa last night  (monday) around 8:30 and was so happy to see the smiling face of my good friend whom I spent time with in FL and the VI. Her new puppy greeted me as I hopped in the front seat and we chatted about life the whole way back to her place This morning, we took it easy and then grabbed the dog and started the drive to Myakka River State Park. With the sun out, a slight breeze and 70+ degree weather, it was the perfect day for a hike. We got to the park around mid-day and our first stop was at the bird dock. This was a birders paradise! Hawks, vultures, cranes, herons. There were beautiful birds of every kind flying over the water and low shrubs. You could see for forever! After the birds, we went to find our trail. The trail started in a wooded area and then opened up pretty quickly. ...

9:22 pm Tonight we had our cacao/new moon ceremony and I left early. Ive been really tired lately and so I took my chance to leave when I could to come write and sleep early. It started out with a ton of us sitting around a fire. Id say close to 30 or more. The people leading the cacao ceremony prepared our cacao and then sent around mugs which we sweetened with honey. They were wearing these tall pointy brimmed hats, not like a witches hat like suuuuuper pointed. Apparently it takes a lot to make cacao. We started out with the new moon ceremony where we chanted songs and banged on drums. The woman who led this had a beautiful voice and so I didn't do much chant/singing but listened to her. Im also not much of a chanter... We then invited the four directions (NSEW) to join us by shaking our gourds in each direction after their invite. As we were doing this, I noticed that the stars were so bright and beautiful in the sky. At this point our fire started to die and I wanted s...