My family and I were in a cave in Belize this past week. As we entered the cave in a canoe, there was complete silence. The only noise we heard was the sound of water dripping. Sometimes, we would hear a cough or a sneeze but it always came back to the dripping water. You couldn’t see anything. There was total darkness.
“I want you to look around,” the tour guide told us. “Can you see your hand?”
I looked. I couldn’t see my hand, my foot or my son who sat at the front of the canoe.
“I want you to meditate and think about the darkness,” he said.
When we turned the flashlight on, it was still dark in the cave but we were able to see interesting rock formations. We even saw a group of bats, some pottery and a human skull.
“The Mayans used these caves to burry their dead,” the tour guide said. “They also used them for shelter.”
Drip…. Drip…. Drip…. As we got deeper into the cave, the water dripped even more.
“Notice the dripping water,” the guide said. (How can you not notice it?) “The Mayans used the dripping water for drinking water. They collected it and many had kidney problems.”
When we were close to leaving the cave, the tour guide advised us to shut off the flashlight. When we looked in the distance, all we could see is a small bit of light. As we got closer, the light got larger and larger and larger, until we were almost out.
