Looking back down the steep 60 feet of crumbling steps, I am reminded that no safety fencing or climbing gear is there to protect me. A single rope hangs down the middle of the stairs and that’s it. Each step brings me closer to the top, the wind increasing as I ascend. The view is spectacular. Miles of jungle stretch out away from the pyramid.
Hundreds of years ago the Nohoch Muul pyramid was the center of the local Mayan Indian community. Mayan Indians from across Mexico traveled to Nohoch Muul, seeking guidance and friendship.
Each day a priest climbed nearly 140 feet up the ancient structure to spend time in the temple located at the top, offering prayers to help his people. Nohoch Muul is part of a much larger Mayan Indian community known as Coba, discovered in the late 1980s. Only 10 percent of this ancient Mayan community has been uncovered.
The Coba ruins, in the Yucatan peninsula rain forest near the Mayan Riviera, put me in touch with the idea that, like the Mayan Indians, all people crave existence within a community. This craving explains our passion for social media and our desire to live life in a welcoming neighborhood.
While modern day life in a community may not require a daily 140-foot climb, being part of a supportive environment helps ease life’s burdens. Like the pyramid climb, it is not always easy, yet it is rewarding.
Building and maintaining friendships, helping one another, particularly during trying times, and just living life can present difficult challenges. But when we share time with others, volunteering and helping improve our neighborhoods and communities, humanity is lifted up by the powerful experience of sharing.
When we take care of our neighborhoods, we feel less depressed, more satisfied, and generally happier with who we are and with those around us.
These thoughts drift with me as I struggle to reach the top of the 140-foot monolith. Several times, I lose hold and think I might be blown off. Always, another climber helps me, so that I may reach the top safely. After the last shaky step, I turn and see an ocean of green—the rain forest stretching out for miles below me.
White clouds float through the blue sky. There are no skyscrapers, or buildings, or airplanes—just nature and the ruins. Smiling, I reach my arms up in triumph. I made it! Grinning, I realize that I did not reach the top on my own. I had help.
Life is about more than our own sense of self. Achieving a personal triumph is always made easier when one has help from a community of caring people
Living a green lifestyle and building emotionally healthy relationships will help you when you are climbing your own personal pyramid. Family and friends will lift you up when you need help, so you can live a better, less isolated, life.
Perhaps building community will help you realize the true value of humanity—or perhaps it will simply make you smile more often. Either way, working to build a greener and healthier community will improve the quality of your living.
So start doing it today—and make a difference.
