The author of this letter is a friend of mine. She is doing good work. Support her.

April 9, 2010

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

The butterflies- las mariposas – are everywhere in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos.  Beautiful, delicate, daffodil-yellow bug angels that flit and flutter and rise out of seemingly every growing thing.  It is the season of butterflies.  Often as I am walking down the street they will dance just above my head or do a fly-by in front of my eyes.  Have you ever had this experience?  It is truly magical, as if fairies have come to dance around you and sprinkle their magic dust – that is what the energy of las mariposas feels like to me.  When I am walking on the paved brick path to the beach, alone with nature and amongst the lush foliage and dense small trees, they seem to ascend and descend with the breeze.  It is a magical sight – thick clouds of delicate, yellow weightless energy rising out of nowhere.  Yesterday, as we were driving through the Highlands on the way to a pristine beach called La Garapatera,  the butterflies were dancing all across the road.  Their flight paths give the appearance that they do not know where they are going or what they are doing, but their presence exudes lightness and love.  It is clear that they know their way.  Nature has so much to teach us and I am so grateful for these little yellow mariposas, demonstrating nature’s infinite wisdom with light hearts.   A constant reminder not to take oneself or the happenings of life too seriously.

I have been in the Galapagos now for 5 1/2 weeks.  It is “summer” here – extremely hot and extremely humid, more so than last year and the hottest climate I have ever been in.  The ocean is exquisite – clear, warm, manganese blue and teeming with new wildlife – it is the time of birth for some animals, and I have recently seen baby sharks in the shallows.  The children here have January, February and March off.  The new school year started this week Monday, the day after Easter.  It has been a pleasure seeing the children heading off to school this week wearing their new school clothes and excited attitudes.

There is so much happening here, so many good things – great things – for the project I am working on to help raise money for the center for special needs children.  Miracle after miracle keeps occurring – I see just the right person at just the right time, people are stepping up from all over to help out, and it is extremely gratifying and humbling.  The stories are endless tales of coincidences day after day after day.   Just yesterday I received word of an incredible lucky break for us:  my friend in Quito, Margara, has been instrumental in arranging a meeting for me with the Vice President of Ecuador and his wife.  They are going to be here in Galapagos today, on another island, participating in a conservation seminar that has attracted celebrities from around the world, and to also meet with Bill Gates, who is visiting the Galapagos.  Then on Saturday the VP comes here to Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz, to meet with me.  The VP does a weekly TV broadcast, which he will do from the town park here on Saturday.  My understanding at this time is that the interview will be before the broadcast.  He has asked for all the children and families of the center to be present, and I think we have upwards of 80 children and parents coming.  Tomorrow at the center we are making some special homemade art work gifts for the VP and the Señora.  The VP of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, is himself a disabled man and has done much to advance the rights of disabled people, esp. disabled women, here in this country.  I hear he has an infectious, positive energy and I am really looking forward to meeting him.   Please send all of your good energy our way on Saturday morning!  I am hoping that he decides to help us out in a big way.  The children here need that.

I would also like to announce the launching of the new website for the project: www.childrenofgalapagos.org.  Please visit the site often and explore the pages.  Creating the website has been a challenge and I have jokingly said it is the third greatest creation of my life, my son and daughter are the first two.  I want to give a big thank you to Alisa White, who has helped me with it tremendously and, by the way, has unending patience!

Two weeks ago the town celebrated Earth Day.  Did you turn out your lights at 8:30 that night for an hour?  Supposedly, the Galapagos Islands were the final place on the planet where the lights-out exercise occurred.  Puerto Ayora got involved in a big way.  All the street lights were turned out at sundown (always 6:30 here) and the entire main street, Charles Darwin Ave., was lined with lumminaria – it was a breathtaking site! All the restaurants turned their lights out and people dined by candlelight.  It was truly beautiful. The gentle light even created a kind of sacred hush all over town, even though people were everywhere, it was quiet.  The street was closed off to the taxis and other vehicles.   It was a wonderful send-off for a side trip I had to take to Quito.  The local agency that regulates human traffic here in the Galapagos informed me i needed a special visa.  I was so blessed to have the help of yet another friend in Quito, who literally dropped her life for 2 days to run me all over the place, helping me get documents that we found out we needed once we got there, etc. etc. etc.  My Easter miracle was being told that it would take a week to get the visa, and then actually getting it on the second day, in time to return to Galapagos for Easter weekend.  AND, it ended up I had to do the final meeting by myself, without a translator, because my friend could not be present.  THAT was a miracle in and of itself.  I had much time for reflection as I sat in the Ministerio office (you take a number, mine was 62 and they were on 87, at 100 the numbers start over again at 1 – get the picture?), in a huge, dingy room full of many different people from many different countries and walks of life.  They all had the same look of hope on their faces as I imagined I had on mine.  I had time to sit and be and really reflect on what life is bringing in this moment, and take  a break from all the franticness of running around Quito accomplishing seemingly unattainable things.  So this is what I know from sitting in the Ministerio – when you breathe, things work out.  When you hold your breath you run into trouble.  When you smile, things work out.  When you exude anxiety, they don’t always.  When you are ready to accept things as they are at all times, no matter now bad or how good, some kind of weird, strange, marvelous change occurs inside, for me a huge sense of gratitude swells up and I realize the absolute goodness of life.  And the most precious gift in life has to be friends.  It is such a privilege to see all the goodness wafting out of everyone.  I feel very, very blessed.

And so it goes.  Life flows on and we follow the path, even when the flight pattern doesn’t seem to be taking us anywhere.  Las Mariposas teach me once again that it isn’t in the destination but in the joy of heading in that direction, and once in a while we find the flower that is overflowing with nectar and drink deeply, and then it is time to move on once again, hopefully with our fellow mariposas in tow, maybe dive-bombing a human once in a while just for the fun of it.

My friend, Sue, has passed along this quote to me:

“We dance around the circle and suppose … the answer sits in the middle and knows.” – Robert Frost

For whatever that means to you, enjoy and I will be sending news again soon.

Thanks to you all for your support and care.

Sending much love,

Mom/Treecy