Heaven on Earth

From Sun City, we headed out into the bush for the next part of our adventure, a safari. We went to a private game lodge called Shambala. A Tibetan word, shambala means heaven on earth, and it was a perfect description of our new location. The lodge usually only houses a maximum of 16 guests, but for our stay we were the only ones. We literally had the place entirely to ourselves. It was a very unique experience and we were treated like vips by the staff. Our accommodation was amazing as well. We stayed in a small little bungalow modeled after a traditional african straw hut known as a rondavel. It was beautiful.
The true beauty and excitement though came when we journeyed out into the bush to see the animals. By the end of our trip, we had seen zebras, giraffes, buffalos, ostriches, warthogs, impalas, kudus, wildebeests, elephants, lions, a cheetah just after it had made a kill, and even a rhino that charged us to within 5 feet of our vehicle. To be so close to these wild animals in their natural habitat is beyond words. Raw, untouched, uncaged nature at its best. These few days in the wild have definitely been the highlight of the trip for me.
Being out in the African wild has given me a lot of time to reconnect with nature, with life, and with my Self. I learned a lot from the animals out here. From the cats I learned about true power. They showed me that even though they had the ability to kill most of the other animals around them, they did so only when they needed to in order to live. Unlike us humans, they did not kill for fun, for politics, or for any other sorry excuse.
From the elephants, I learned about true strength. These massive creatures have more muscles in just their trunks than we have in our entire human body, and yet they can use them to pick up a coin off the ground if need be. To see the way these gentle giants interacted with their young children was more beautiful than any words can convey. To know that these massive beings had the strength to destroy just about anything that stood in their way, us included, and yet they chose not to, is a true example of strength.
From nature itself I learned about true peace. The way all of the animals interacted together, the symphony of life's rhythms played out across the land, the call of the birds at sunrise, the calm of the animals at dusk. To see how each and every creature fit so well into the puzzle of life, each played their parts and did so without complaint. No concern for what had been, no worry about what could be, just present in the moment as it was. To live in such a way is true peace, true harmony.
This way of life is not just reserved for the animals of the bush however. It is a state of being that each and every one of us is capable of achieving as well. It takes time, and it takes effort, but it can be done. Start with your breath, let it be deep, slow and full. After all, breath is life, and when we can consciously connect with it, we can consciously connect with life. Let your breath call you into the present moment, call you into peace, and the rhythm of life itself. When we do this, little by little we find that life has become far more than we ever imagined, and we find our way to our very own Shambala, to our very own heaven on earth.