Through the Blue Portal – Overcoming Our Fears

Out of all the animals on the campus at La Mariposa, the 3 older spider monkeys are my favorite. Each has a unique personality. The two females are sweet and cautious. The male is bravo (mean) at times, but full of personality and strut. Recently they were relocated to the Mariposa main campus from one of the reserves due to staffing cuts. A larger outdoor classroom was converted into an enclosure to house them. For what they had to work with, the construction crew did a good job adding swings and other things to keep the monkeys entertained. But at the end of the day the floor is concrete, and a step down from their previous habitat.

This past Friday, the construction crew finished a second enclosure right beside their current one. They did an excellent job encasing a large tree, several banana trees, and other natural habitat. They then connected the two enclosures with a blue barrow. Saturday morning, they opened this new tunnel between enclosures for the first time. The male, curious and bold, took no time in entering this new blue portal, and immediately started enjoying swinging from trees and ripping banana leaves.

The two females, however, were scared. Not wanting to leave the comfort of what they knew and stressed by this new blue portal, they chose to spend the next hours in their old concrete prison, instead of venturing into this new green paradise that awaited them. Finally, one and then the other made their way in, and are now fully enjoying their new habitat.

 As I observed these monkeys, I reflected on how we sometimes keep ourselves in concrete prisons (metaphorically speaking) afraid of our own blue portals into unknown worlds and experiences. I’ve mentioned in a previous post, that a big part of this trip is to expand our comforts zones. It is uncomfortable at times, but the potential is there for amazing discoveries on the other end. (At the very least we can come back if things don’t pan out, and we haven’t lost anything.)

On this trip, I’ve observed these same themes in my two oldest children. One is bold, not afraid to try her Spanish out, or try new things.  I think she’ll pick things up the quickest. The other is more afraid to make mistakes or be forced to use his Spanish. I was a lot like him at his age. I wanted to make sure I said say something perfect and was probably slower to speak a new language because of it. He also had to be coaxed out of the room a bit more to explore the outdoors. But now that he is out, he is hooked and will play for hours. That’s the good news, sometime others intervene and go through that tunnel first, and make things easier to follow. Being stuck on the concrete side isn’t a terminal diagnosis. All three of my children are still working on acquiring a taste for now foods. Hopefully forcing them to try new foods pays off by the end of the trip.

So what is your Blue Portal? What concrete prison are you sitting in, and what is keeping you from venturing into what you need to become?

Denver