It has been said that home is where the heart is.  To me it seems the dichotomy is between whether home is internal or external, and/or/both?  Traveling 50-70,000 miles a year over the past few years, I learned that how I think about home truly matters to my well being while on the road.

In my book, "The Head, Heart and Guts of the Matter. What is the Matter?", I write about the many ways people have described home to me, along with my own experiences.  My editor reminded me of the tv show, The Waltons, that ran fifteen-plus years ago.  One episode focused on the Walton family who lived on a mountain, and a group of gypsies passing through their area.  The gypsies were the image of carrying home with them, wherever they went.  The Waltons who portrayed, deep-rooted traditional values about home were forced to see that not everyone has the same point of view about house and home.

What is home to you?  Are you able to be internally at home regardless of what is happening around you?  Here is one way to find out.  Go inside yourself and be still and quiet.  Now imagine that if the one smell you simply cannot stand were in your face.  Could you stay inside quietly, or might you be triggered to jump out of yourself to fix the problem?  Or, you might imagine that the most obnoxious sound came into your space.  Are you able to ignore it and stay peacefully inside yourself?

The intent for this project began with the desire to ensure an adequate, clean source of water for the village of Mollamarka, Peru, a small village of Quechua people, in the highlands east of Cuzco. The villagers are a quiet, shy, loving people who love others because we are humans on the same planet. They live in union with the earth, a true community of cooperation. The Quechua people have lived this way for more than five hundred years. We will continue to approach them with respect and honor for their way of life.

This project was then developed to not only evaluate the water supply, but to respectfully inquire into the Mollamarka's perceived needs and ensure a match. What we discovered in our visit is that there is an even greater intent for us for:

This project is a gift of reciprocity, or ayni, to use the Quechua term, given by the nurse mentioned below, for the unconditional love and service the people have shown her. The next phase may include determining the interest of the Club of Mothers to find ways to expand their economy to be self-sustaining using their skill and craft of weaving with alpaca wool. The vision is being created one heart at a time.

Marilyn Petrich, RN, approached the villagers, or waikis, (an affectionate term meaning brother or sister) according to their way of life and belief systems. She envisioned using their own model of the three stages of relationship, a way of living that concerns everything from interpersonal relationships to relating to the sacred Apus (mountains). According to Oakley Gordon, PhD., the stages are as follows:

Tinkuy--The initial encounter, when two energy fields meet for the first time. It's a meeting of the filaments of energy that surround and inform our physical body. Sometimes people rush the subtle exchange that takes place during these first meetings. But when we grant this first encounter the importance it deserves and we allow our fields of energy to filter through each other, then we create an interweaving of our luminous fields--a tinkuy.

Tupay --The second stage, a confrontation in which each meets the terms of the other's power. There is a recognition that there is a margin of difference and the potential for development. The one with superior knowledge teaches the other how to have that same knowledge.

Tak'e --Involves a conjunction or communication of our interior filaments. As these filaments interact and become connected, both persons experience tak'e. In tinkuy, it is essential to listen to the needs of the community and not rush in with a Western mindset of sterility and fear of all bacteria. They have lived in harmony with many environmental realities we c annot tolerate for hundreds of years. For tupay, recognize the waikis' relationship to their surroundings and their ability to heal their own people. Then, together with Western medicine, it can be a cooperative venture. Lastly, in tak'e, two groups of human beings have both been served and are now connected in body, mind, spirit and intent, no longer two dissimilar cultures, we are One.

You may contact Ms. Petrich at amaru@cableone.net with any questions or comments and see www.intiwasi.org for more information about the Mollamarka and connecting with their filaments for the benefit of All.

Learning to live at home inside Self is a process.
If you want to explore more
about how that might be possible,
contact us about the "Coming Home" process.