In southernmost Belize there is a small district called Toledo. During my last semester as an undergrad, I had the opportunity to spend a week in a Toledo village called Blue Creek.
This trip was incredible in many different ways. We had no service, toughed it out in the jungle for the week, saw a variety of wild animals, learned about Mayan culture and their ruins, and had wolf spiders the size of our hands falling from ceilings.
Throughout the week, our local Mayan guides led us through various jungle excursions. Throughout the experience, we gained wisdom and insight from their spirituality, legends, and life stories. They were perhaps the most experienced individuals I have met thus far.
In learning about Mayan culture, I gained key takeaways through their stories and legends. The stories they shared with my group that week have stuck with me since, and I find myself often sharing the advice they taught.
During the week, our guides demonstrated their trust and reliance on nature and exercised their unwavering fearlessness. Through learning about their culture and personal lives, we gained a fresh perspective on overcoming challenges and adversity.
Speaking about this trip often brings me back to three key lessons and stories.
Love, death, and communication
During our dry cave excursion, one of our guides, Isidoro, led us through tight spaces and showed us remnants of limestone dishes and tables. These remnants were likely from a tribe that lived in the cave some hundreds of years ago.
He led us to a deep hole in the middle of the cave and claimed it was an entrance to the “underworld.” He told us about experiments done to figure out how deep the bottom is, but they’ve never had success in finding the bottom.
We finished exploring the cave and he instructed us to take a seat, signaling a story was on the way. He was about to tell us the legend of why the Maya civilization collapsed. While there are many stories and legends on what caused the Mayan collapse, Isidoro grew up with the story of how it ended through love and death.
There was a girl from the cave and a boy from the village. In order for the village and cave people to stay informed, they would meet in the middle to discuss and trade information they had. The boy and girl served as messengers.
Some time after their meetings, they began to fall in love. Because intermarriage between cave and village was unorthodox to customs, the girl needed to gain his mother’s approval in order for them to be together.
The parents were encouraged to meet but different customs between the two tribes caused some contention. One being, the cave dwellers had to face away from each other when eating. The village mother thought this was crazy and told her son the girl’s family were bad people.
The tribe of the cave was also known to shape shift, which reinforced the mother’s view.
After meeting each other one day, the boy followed the girl’s footprints to test his mother’s allegations. He watched the footprints turn from human to jaguar within a matter of steps. This greatly frightened the boy.
During this time, there was a curse over the cave and that anyone living in it would be dead on a specific day. Near that particular day, the girl asked the boy to make up his mind if he wanted to be with her because soon she might be dead.
The boy loved the girl very much, but because of his mother’s words and what he saw, he told her he was no longer interested. He returned to the village and she returned to the cave.
Three days later, she and her family die. Additionally, the boy and his family die which cut off communication between the two tribes. That lack of communication is what led to the eventual collapse of the Maya civilization.
I learned throughout this week there was always a deeper meaning and point to the stories Isidoro shared with us. I believe the deeper meaning in this story is that love and unity are needed to survive and prosper.
The legend goes, that if the boy would have chosen to be with the girl, he could have saved both of their people. But because he acted out of fear, the collapse of a civilization was on the brink.
“If you were the boy, what would you have done?” people would often ask Isidoro as he grew up. The question always posed an invitation for deeper self-exploration and to aid discernment. It had a way of highlighting the more important decision and/or consequence.
A question I remember thinking after this story was in regard to the fear the boy felt. If it was that paralyzing, and was the literal result of life or death, how does one overcome intensely weighted fear?
A few days later at a Mayan ruin, Isidoro answered my question.
Facing fears
After we had finished exploring the Lubaantun Archaeological Reserve, Isidoro gathered us around a tree. This tree was a Silk Cotton Ceiba and extended some one hundred feet high. It was known for its branches that “stretch up to Heaven,” and in their culture is fabled to have healing and protection properties.
Isidoro began his story by telling us he was afraid of everything when he was younger. Often, he would pray about his worries and the silly things that scared him. At about the age of five, his fears would range from death to an ant crawling on his arm.
His grandma didn’t want him to grow up in fear of the world, so she told his father to take him to a Silk Cotton Ceiba for the night. His father took Isidoro to the tree at sundown and told him he’d be back in the morning. Camping under the tree would teach Isidoro that God will protect and help him in his fears.
That night, Isidoro laid against the tree and exposed roots as jaguars, snakes, and other jungle creatures stopped to check him out. By the time his father came to get him in the morning, he was no longer afraid of anything.
He told us this story with such passion in facing our fears, and having the protection of spirituality to guide us through the darkness. He encouraged us to find our safe haven that stretches up to Heaven. With that guiding compass, we can face anything if we put our mind to it and believe. Fear will remain until we face it.
Often, we can find fear as a reason for overthinking, cold feet, and second guessing. Those anxieties can cause us to miss out or make a quick-witted decision that isn’t weighed properly.
But, Isidoro had guidance for this particular notion as well.
Think twice
While we were exploring an ancient Mayan ruin site at Labantuun, I asked Isidoro a question one of my friends loves to ask. “If you could tell the world one message, what would you say?”
Through all of Isidoro’s nuggets of wisdom and pieces of advice he’d already shared, I think I was expecting something really profound that would shake up my way of thinking. Instead, he gave me something a lot simpler to chew on.
“Think twice before you go.”
I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by this. On the surface, those five words could hold many different interpretations. I asked him for further clarity.
“Not in hesitation, but to take the time to understand why you’re doing something, and to check in with yourself on if it’s what you’re supposed to do, or meant to do. Be rational. Sometimes life calls for quick-witted decisions, sure, but think twice before making those life-altering choices.”
We should think twice about who we’re becoming, where we’re going, and what impacts we are hoping to make. If we don’t have the answer right now, that’s further encouragement to think about it.
He stressed how we don’t need to know exactly the right answer or right step. More so, we shouldn’t hastily decide on something we haven’t given thought to, and we shouldn’t be afraid to take a step.
Conclusion
On one of our last days there, I asked Isidoro what he thought the most important things in life are. He told me, “honesty with yourself and to do what you love, because it leads to happiness.”
In parting, it’s important to share your love and passions with the world because of the ripple effect they can create. If anything should ripple, it’s positive reinforcement, generational wisdom and stories from a fading culture.
This week taught me the value of going outside myself and jumping into someone else’s mind. Immersing yourself into different conversations and narratives can be the difference between just a week, or a week of edification.
On the other side of culture shock is a whole new world of exploration and knowledge to be gained. So, when presented with the opportunity, ask questions and be intentional with what you ask.
You never know what may be waiting in the next sentence, or how it’ll take shape in your life.
