Monkey mind and monkey bridges...

I remember Suzuki talking about our monkey mind and breath as a way to quiet the monkey mind. How our thoughts try to keep us busy and unaware. I sit here at the table in the early morning hours when there is very little going on that involves humans. The Howlers start at 0500 and call in the day. You can hear the males talking as the troop moves through the bush. The howling goes left to right as I sit at the table and write. Three hours later I know they will be making the big jump to the tree across the fence one by one and then they are gone for the day, making their big loop until it’s 0500 again. Listening to them my own monkey mind sits still not daydreaming just listening.
The Howler is a part of this tropical bush life here there and everywhere where the bush is. I remember the Howlers from a long time ago and then again in Belize when Ginny and I first started going there in 1980.
The Howlers and some other of the peaceful critters who climb in the bush trees have a problem here in Costa Rica. A 2007 study done by Ronald Sanchez of the U of CR shows that CR lost HALF it’s monkey population between 1995-2007. A great majority of these deaths are due to electrocution. The growth here and I imagine in the rest of the fast developing isthmus has spawned thousand’s of Km’s of electric lines. They are uninsulated so monkeys crossing from canopy to canopy and making contact either die, get burned or stunned and fall to the ground where they are vulnerable to the shitload of dogs here. The solution is to insulate but that takes money and process. The federally owned provider, ICE, won’t spend the money and all government here is a cacophony of endless process. A cheaper way is the monkey bridge a safe avenue over the dangerous wires by way of natural hemp rope lines that the monkeys can navigate. {check out Montezuma’s monkey bridge on You Tube}
Mary Lynn Perry is founder of Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary just south on MZ and has been working with someone from the Cobano office of ICE to raise awareness and get more bridges built so less monkeys and other arboreal climbing canopy critters get electrocuted. Find her and read about the Sanctuary. I’m going to go down and volunteer for the 23-26 of December and see the place firsthand.
The Howlers fill the time when I feel the most in touch with me so far this winter. In the early morning and the sunset both in Panama and here in Montezuma they are the background music in the time that  means the most to me right now in my life.
Suzuki spoke about the breath as a gate that moves back and forth quietly, peacefully, quieting the monkey mind. Would that all the Howlers could move as peacefully. Just sayin. TmyO...