Pura Vida

I opened the textbook and immediately fell in love. The colors were so vibrant. This couldn’t be a real animal. Little did I know that I would be standing under a tropical rainforest’s thick canopy nearly two decades later seeing those same images in real life.

It’s crazy what you remember. I was in Mrs. Green’s sixth-grade science class at Welborn Middle School when I saw the love of my life for the first time. The poison dart frogs and tropical tree frogs that lived within the pages of that science book made my heart leap in a way not much else had prior. I was determined to see these creatures in the wild before the rainforests were all cut down.

After my Iraq deployment, I got my first taste of the jungle. We booked a cruise that offered a brief excursion to the Mayan ruins of Belize. We drove through fractured forests to get to the archeological site. It was glorious. I was more enamored with the tropical toads I found in the leaf litter than the ritual death sites. Our taxi driver was confused when I shouted for her to stop our minivan. I leaped out of the open door with my sights set on photographing a huge tarantula crossing the road. I was in heaven.

This excursion didn’t scratch the itch. It only made it fester further. Brief trips to the Bahamas and South Florida in the years after that trip got me close, but not close enough. Then it happened. In 2013 I got an opportunity to augment a youth group a friend of mine was a part of. I was allowed to stow away with them for a mission trip. Costa Rica has been my dream locale since that fateful day in Mrs. Green’s science class. When I thought of rainforests, I thought of Costa Rica. Now I was going to get a chance to visit.

Part of my duty during that trip was to speak at youth events and film a documentary for the church. This was an easy tradeoff because I loved making films and talking with kids about God. During our downtime on the mission trip, my friend Chance and I snuck off into the jungle and explored.

I found myself in a place I’d always dreamed of visiting and never truly believed I’d see. To say I was humbled among the myriad trees, howler monkeys, amphibians, and wonderful people would be an understatement. It was truly awe-inspiring. It was hard not to feel God in a place so pure. Paradise wasn’t a strong enough word.

As I stood amid the buttress roots of a large tropical tree I felt truly at peace. I was just a small part of the whole. The ecosystem that surrounded me was organic perfection. Later, when I stared into the bubbling caldera of an active volcano, I had the distinct feeling that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Life was being violently created seemingly from the sulfuric bowels of hell. What was once bad was made good. The frothy lava was a strong metaphor for my life. At one time, all that rose out of me was pure hell but given time, new life arose. There was beauty even in the lowest parts of me.

There were lessons at every turn. It seemed God was somehow closer in Costa Rica. Maybe because you couldn’t help but tune in to the divine given the absolute glory around you. This place went from my imagination and the pages of books to reality in one simple plane ride. It was a world that I’d only dreamed of. That trip far surpassed my wildest expectations.

I’d always wanted to see what I experienced there, yet somehow, I never truly believed I’d get the chance to do so. Then, there I was. Even now, all these years later, it’s hard to describe. In such a weird way that place felt like home. As if since the sixth grade the jungle issued a clarion call to me, luring me to her verdant embrace. The first time I found a wild, red-eyed tree frog I nearly cried.

I was overcome with joy. That bliss played on repeat with each new encounter. I learned the true definition of the word awesome. I was struck speechless more often than not, overwhelmed by the experience. There’s so much more of that story to tell but to remain brief, I’ll end it here. I pray I get to visit again someday.

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If you’d like to see the documentary I filmed check it out below:

Fair warning…I talk about God…A lot!

Catching Creation in Costa Rica