Undone by the Amazon

The night is still high, guarded by a blanket of stars and planets that shine brightly, coloured in shades of white and yellow, sparkling in the distance... shooting stars... and the wine glasses that are still there, denouncing a night of much conversation, life stories, stories lived and dreams cherished by the deep night.

The silence of the night is interrupted by the sounds of the forest animals that start to wake up... the sound is so loud now... cicadas, crickets, birds, many birds, various frogs, monkeys... the fog in the forest is announcing the day to come... the sun is slowly rising, dissipating the mist...

And the roof “cries”, dripping the humidity of the serene night. I feel a drop on my leg, running slowly down to my feet. I cover myself with a blanket to keep warm from the cold of the morning in the forest... And other sounds start to awaken those who are still sleeping... the mangos falling ripe on the roof, the beetle passes by, the moth in its disguise with big eyes to scare away your predators rests unwavering in the wood that holds my hammock...

And the sun comes, solemn, taking away the stars and colouring the sky with pink clouds... and when it appears golden on the horizon, it illuminates every bit of that intense green of the chestnut, mahogany, açaizero, buriti, of ancient trees that rest there, noble, haughty, alive... other birds start to sing... I hear the guaribas in the distance... the capuchin monkeys jumping from branch to branch on one side of the veranda and on the other side from the veranda...

And while the sun is turning each leaf golden, the sound fades, as if surrendering to the golden light of the star-king... the wood crackles as it warms... and the smell of coffee invades the environment... time to sit around that long wooden table, in front of the wood stove, which roasts the tapioca... surrounded by the host family , people who visit... on the way to breakfast, there comes “Mutuca” the dog of the house, wagging his cheerful tail with very black hair, and the cat “Pablo”, who I just crossed on the way holding a little bird he just hunted by the mouth...

Taken by my cousin of the heart, Vanusa, a personal stylist, always beautiful in her colour combinations, even in the middle of the forest, and her son Gabriel, who thrills me so much that he resembles his grandfather, who I admired so much... I also meet the boys from INPA, researchers of frogs, snakes, and lizards, who love what they do so much that they make us live their experiences in the forest with them... I meet Renata, super tuned carioca lady writing a music project in the forest, and the hosts, a French photographer, Leo, Vanessa's ex-husband, a fascinating businesswoman and friend of indigenous and caboclo people, who have lived in this magical place for almost 20 years, with her mother, Dona Estrela, small and very interesting, that after cooking, she will smoke her pipe reading the news on her iPad... and the children, so intelligent, one of them, makes delicious breads with levoin (with the perfect pronunciation in French!), the other son, quieter, I saw helping his father to build a new room, and bringing firewood for the stove... her young daughter, already beginning to follow in the footsteps of her mother, curious and very strong.

But there are things that you can't describe, just feel... and I feel an awakening inside me, that brings me back to my Amazonian roots, as a father, as a mother, as ancestors who lived here for hundreds of years, who walked through the forest, sailed upstream the rivers in their barges, cultivated their rubber plantations in vast lands that are now kept under dense forest... They left a legacy to their descendants, and that cannot be erased, and should not be forgotten!

The forest has an intense magic to inebriate your senses and bring you to a state of full contemplation of the Glory of God manifested in all His Creation, and to the remembrance of my routes and the legacy from the ones that came before me. I feel like a hangover, not of wine, but of senses. There is a great peace, but also a great responsibility for the preservation of the life that is contained in it. Including yours, ours...

The sound is still very loud now... inside me... #yourlegacy #yourself #lifestyle #edisc #extendeddisc #behaviouralprofileanalysis #mentoring #coaching #personalcoachingprogram #monicasweeneycoaching