From Sergio Yepes in Rionegro, Colombia,

Prayers and reading for the ride:

May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness. May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering. May they never be disassociated from the supreme happiness which is without suffering. May they remain in the boundless equanimity, free from both attachment to close ones and rejection of others.

Prayers and reading for the ceremony:

Contentment State of being, of grace one reaches where everything is just in place, in balance and harmony, hot is good, warm is good, cold is good, no need to complain about the state of affairs of life. It don’t mean you relinquish your dreams of betterment of the self, it don’t mean you vanish the state of affairs of global reality, it means everything is as it should be right now and you are who you are, no matter what happens right now.

It is not a state of complacency, whatever there is that can be changed will be changed just in time, and the changes beyond your reach are walked through spirituality and the strength of character it brings and sustain it provides, because those are changes on a grander scale, ex: War;can you end war today? If your answer is yes, please do enlighten us all, we do need the answer.

Can you walk a life of peace? Yes indeed, contentment is one of the roots of walking a life at peace, mainly, with yourself, the longer you walk in contentment, the deeper your inner peace belongs to you and the wider the resonance of it. To walk a life in contentment brings forth enduring joy, if one has a car, but today needs to walk, one can do it in contentment of being able to walk, if one needs to ride a bike instead of taking the car out, then one rides it in contentment of being able to ride, and additionally gains the chance of obtaining different views of life in movement, on the one hand, how to look at life through the wind shield, how to gaze whilst walking, and the view from a bike ride, different states of attention, diversity in gazing at life. Children before being spoiled by our own spoiled unattended adults, mostly walk life in enduring contentment, before they trade their joy for some trinquet adults use to distract themselves from being fully present to sharing some quality time with children.

A seed in its core self knows if it is a tree, maize, tobacco, a rose, and inhabits in the stillness of contentment, and in it the path to become manifest from within, the tree forest, the maize field, and the rose garden. The weight of earth on top is the tranquil space where it is fed and nurtured so it can grow to become it’s best self, where it can share what it brought from the invisible to the visible; to share, provide, become, none can become a tree for a tree, the pattern of life is deeply rooted and woven in spirit, not the spirit of complicated formulas, gnostic or agnostic, those are notions, not spirit in itself.

Spirit is contentment, too much talk today about spirituality, and every nation, every creed, every culture brings a clue into the fore of human experience about it, and still people strive to grasp from wordings that come from outside sources, that invite you to learn and at the same time tell you they have a key that belongs only to them, maybe your grandchildren will be admirable enough to become worthy of such a key, and if only you recognized that you already have the key within you, you would not strive to become the other and you would walk in contentment of sharing with others the beauty of life, isn’t that a wonderful enough gift in this life? to be able to gaze at the diversity of life’s experiences, sounds, colors, odors, tastes, why the need to colonize oneself with the knowledge of others, better still enrich all of us with all of our experience’s.

For a long time I dreamt of planting my own food, my own garden, and at last here are the growing crops, the time to share with others the crops will come in due time, those who shared will receive a share, those who supported the plowing will receive their share, the animals, spirit, the water, the fire, the earth, the people. Being able to learn from mother earth, it might not be an answer for all, it is for one like me, that lives a life of gratefulness towards creation, it brings and deepens contentment and commitment, was I content back in the capital? Yes, and in the same time-space-self I was longing to be able to plow the earth, plant the seeds, nurture them and gaze at their growth, now here is my home, contented with it.

Still enjoy the gift Love has bestowed upon humanity, writing, drawing, painting, cooking, dancing, singing, walking in nature, having family over, my alone time, my accompanied time, gazing at the birds, trees, sky, stars, grass, earth, lighting a fire, bathing, listening to wind, thunder, rain, silence, music. It took most of this year to open this archive, to which there was all already a title engraved, know, here, enjoying being able to share these findings about contentment and how it has healed a heart, a mind, a soul, a silence, and how spiritual the setting of today’s sun seems to a gaze, how deep and sweet the icaro’s listened to, while these reflection and writing resound through the white of paper.

Just now to the bathroom and while sitting there a recollection of memory from child hood, contentment was here all along before, there was no one a word to enclose this state of wellbeing, nothing bothered self; back then, and then self; met bother, what a tough teacher, wow by the way bother, thanks, self was not broken, it did not need any mending, now self knows… Self was a child, contented with its surroundings, with its dreams, with life, when you appeared bother then self; met strive, thanks strive what a self-indulging provocateur have you been, thanks again to both of you self-indulging sensations of loss, may you part in peace and never come back again, please, do leave children alone and bring harm to none sentient being, go to your resting place, you are already well fed, you are already recognized by what you are.

Contentment presented self with one of its eldest and loyalest friends, resiliency, and hello resiliency, both of you armored self so it could cross through bother and strive, especially you armored selves’ heart with love. Now as a grown up, self can tell others that as a child it had a secret friend, now he is no longer secret, when self; learned to read more than stories for children and started learning the stories of adults and the adult world, a voice, a friend, a whisper, parted from self so one could learn the ways of live, with one phrase as it hid and stood always by one selves life “Sergio, follow your heart”, it parted from view, it did not want for adult’s to know that self knew it, that is why he is the keeper of secrets, love.

Envy was the mother-father of strive and bother, a sharing, strong tempered, student of life was amidst friendly and non-so friendly entities, teachers all of them, some human in clothing, other; trees, birds, water streams, snakes, worms, frogs, and then in wonder he’s strongest and most defying enemy-friend; envy, not a name yet, presented with a battle for all the ages of a human to learn from, as usual the boy-man gazed at the eyes of the confrontation to come.

Hurt was known to the child, battle and a struggle became known to self, effects of ignorance and lack of self-restraint, I’ll mannered brought up children, and still the manners instilled at home where stronger with some over spilling from the ill-mannered world we were brought up amongst. Candor, sustain for resiliency made quite a bonfire all around, all the child did really see in others, was others like him, took the punches and then gave some himself, pulled some girls braids, played some hide and seek, and robed some girls kisses, and was robed some kisses by some girls, wow, amazement was available to the child, feminity, wow again, they do look beautiful in their school skirts, inhibriation?

What said the child? that is women to me, from self to me, I’m gonna get me some of that. They do smell good, I must bathe to smell good to them as well. And then envy lost the battle from the start. Contentment stood up in resiliency.

Hello Tom Sawyer, hello Huckleberry Finn, what’s up Grandpa Twain, rivers, jungles, pirates, caves, Mississippi girls, let’s walk some fences with a butterfly on the nose and then dive and pick up a shamrock and give it to freckles, in an astounding pirouette, followed by the amazed gaze of her.

This short story, part of a shorter story, called humanity, imbued with the longer story of life, is about the title given to this excerpt of experience.

The remainder is still being written as you read. “Sergio Yepes”