As you walk, you might not see what is happening on the very ground you tread upon. Upon closer inspection, we see a poison dart frog sitting at the root of a tree. Gigantic ants are carrying leaves ten times their size to build a nest and their anthill looks to be the size of a small village. Butterflies dart amongst the trees and plants. I even spotted a tarantula by simply fixing my eyes on the ground. If you can sit quietly and concentrate, you might see the tree sloths that inhabit the forest. Birds are suddenly everywhere when we stop and focus out attention on their cries. Toucans appear. With an increased awareness and focus, the jungle that had seemed bereft of creatures comes alive.

Constantino’s wisdom became even more apparent as we set off for our canopy tour, where we rode a sky tram to the very top of the rainforest and flew from platform to platform on a zip-line! Constantino told us that we would be able to discover the forest from an entirely different perspective, much like the monkey’s experience. We would be seeing it from the top versus the bottom and this could open up a very different and new vantage point.

He was right of course. Looking down at the rainforest gives you a new understanding. It is almost like two separate worlds. There is more light which gives the forest a different look and feel altogether. The view is a panorama of treetops, almost like green clouds. You see things on the top that don’t exist on the bottom. You are also viewing the wildlife that live in the trees at eye level which gives you a new perspective, most evident with the birds and monkeys. It is the angle of sight that changes and reveals them to you differently.

This concept of focused attention and awareness turned a horseback-riding jaunt into the discovery that a tree might not just be a tree. My guide and I had been riding for nearly an hour, our horses running up and down the hills. We were very isolated and there was simply not a soul in sight for miles and miles. We rode past a large tree much like the others in Costa Rica that spread their limbs in a horizontal fashion when I heard Luis gasp. There nestled in the branches of a tree was a coyote, something I never would have seen had it not been for Luis’ fine tuned attention and eyesight.

It wasn’t only the rainforest that revealed it self to me. I reconnected with my two teenagers as well. What with my work and their school, social life and teenage drama, the talk between us at home seemed to revolve more around the mundane details of daily life than true communication. Too much going on and not enough attention on the things and people that matter. The change in locale and the absecnse of everything that distracted us at home made for a renewed ability to be with each other. I noticed the little things that had evaded me at home: watching Jake and Sylvie walking with their arms around each other filled me with joy. Having conversations that opened them up reminded me of their intelligence and depth. I had a renewed sense of who they were and how blessed I was to have these incredible human beings as my children.

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