WWOOFing

This is a place where I am organizing my notes from my first WWOOFing experience. In the moment, my life has radically altered, and my creative energies are simplified to: survival.

I am in the Tropics, on the windward side of an island some of my ancestors are from, and I am in a life/work exchange.

I give 30 hours of work, and then some, and in exchange, I have my own room, no costs for wi-fi, or utilities, and we are close to a bus stop. I also get an $80 a week gift card for food usable at several stores.

Well, actually five weeks and ten days into the experience, I am still here, but I have been relieved of duties, my bags are packed and I'll be headed the other side of the island to stay with a friend before I leave.

Last week I was up until 3:00 am every morning from the physical pain in my feet, and couldn't sleep, and was too exhausted to function to know how to take care of myself. 

The owner of the nursery wanted the seeding/potting station moved, and I thought, goodness, that won't work, and told her. I then thought, I should give it a try, because the permanent WWOOFer is 77. It was ergonomic hell.  I didn't grey rock it. Some people's brains are different, and they need "fuel" from other people. Postive fuel of praise, and then negative fuel by upsetting someone, or hurting them. 

My old high school knee injuried flared up and it was gimpy.

The reverse lordosis in my spine from a car accident, further exacerbated by a college professor that told me I had to dance no matter what in a classmates piece that had whiplash movement in it, that ached.

and the finger I jammed in Albania, I was too overwhelmed by the trauma bond detox and planning for WWOOFing after returning from five weeks in Europe scouting out places I might be able to afford to live that I didn't get it looked at before coming here.

Yup, fractured, and probably ligament damage.

I think I will hold close to my heart the learning from this experience.

I definitely had moments, with what arose when facing the truth of what O'ahu has become, and the insights that came through, where it felt like too much pain for one lifetime, and I found myself at night asking the ancestors to take me home in my sleep.

I've lived a full rich life, and my soul contract feels complete.

When I leave this nursery, I will be, hopefully, free at last from abuse webs because damned if I didn't end up in another harming environment. 

What was different this time, is I recognized it immediately and grew bad ass boundaries, and reflected when I wasn't grey rock enough.

I will miss so much about this land, and I overgave, and overworked, and even went out plant gathering on my days off for the nursery to sell.

Something in my heart said, stop giving, and I couldn't resist one more gift, an 'Ohia for the land, but seeing how this person treated another WWOOFer, geeze, I might just walk it back to the nursery next door and ask them to hold on to it for me.

So many magical experiences, truly.

What's next? I don't want to say where I will be next, for safety reasons.