A story a day

The Corner of Main and Broadway

The medicine man sells fresh pressed orange juice at the corner of what he names ‘Main and Broadway’, a cobblestone corner in the center of Chacala, Mexico, a tiny fishing village nestled along a bay on the west coast. He tenderly cuts the oranges and manually presses the juice. He loves selling juice, calling it his offering, hoping people will buy juice instead of coca-cola. Behind him is an altar with a burning candle, sage, condor feather and crystals.  Sharing even a little of his life I am awed by the extent of his studies and the depth of his wisdom. I learn he offers yoga on the beach, Mayan yoga, performed according to the positions of the sun. I start the next morning and continue for three weeks. After yoga is ‘talk’, a time I listen and gain new knowledge. Daily I hear, “We will always talk about nutrition. We will never evolve with poor nutrition.”

The juice man, as he calls himself, will teach nutrition to any open ears. He does not call himself medicine man, modest of his 40+ years of study with shamans of the Andes, Lakota and his own Purepecha and Huichol tribes, but I call him medicine man.

After three weeks I am invited to his sweat lodge ceremony. Our journey was silent until he saw sage on the side of the road. “Oh, there is sage” he spoke, and we stop. Reverently he gathers sage, leaving tobacco as an offering.

The sweat lodge is small and built of concrete. I sit away from the preparation and watch the fire grow and the stones get hot. I am smudged with sage and given tobacco to throw into the fire with my prayer. As we enter, we utter, ‘All my relations.' Hot stones, brought in using deer antlers, are placed in the pit releasing the sweet aroma of copal. The door closes and we are in darkness. More sweet aromas and such intense heat. Drumming, rattling and prayers transport me to a memory I relive for a moment, and then experience anew with peace and resolution. Aho.