Self-Written Biography of Ximena Morales Gamarra:
I was born in Magdalena del Mar, Lima, Peru. I grew up with my grandparents who planted in my heart their teachings for the rest of my life.
During my years in Lima, I always had a very special connection with the sea, which later became a deep relationship of love and respect for the water of life.
When I was about 7 years old, the climate of what would later be the painful internal war that crossed my country for long and painful years was beginning to be felt.
I honestly feel that it was those years that I determined most of my later decisions: the need to get away from a system that conditions hatred, distrust, and selfishness. Nesting always in the body of Mother Nature, living in the countryside breathing fresh winds, with doors without padlocks, without alarms, without walls, without having large possessions that imprison me, deciding to raise children in a small town and kind, with the candor and innocence of the simple life of the field.
Over the years, my search was running its course. I was not aware of where I was walking. I made many jumps in the vacuum: leaving the security of finishing a race, leaving my country with a backpack, having four children when we did not have a stable economic situation.
When I was 20 years old I made a trip to many countries of America. I lived two years in Mexico traveling in a car / house. That time healed my heart and restored hope in the human. I was received lovingly and generously by each village and situation. I lived with drivers, fishermen, cooks, gardeners, masons, farmers, shepherds, indigenous people. These people taught me to appreciate the simplicity of life, the quality of simplicity that allows you to easily open your heart, treasure those experiences in your soul, endless nights sleeping under the stars, those hands hardened by work, those tables that always have space to share what life offers, those smiles of eternity. Thanks Pedro, Cuco, Alicia, Gloria, Miguel, Comadre Aurora, and dear Hairdresser.Eternal gratitude!
It was also during that time that I started on the path of power plants. Pilgrimage and fasting in the desert where the precious and magical Peyote grows. I was also living the huautla de jimenez, the mythical town of the great Maria Sabina, where all the healers were women were a glorious entrance to the possibility of a life full of magic and wisdom, however, the years that followed were the hard training to acquire consistency and will.
When I returned to South America, I lived in Vilcabamba, the valley of longevity. I met my colleague Santiago, the children of life were born, and although the story idyllic sounds, they were years of meditation, self-confrontation, hard sacrifice, and deep growth. It was not easy to have a mother without having a solid community of support around me. All these things I understood after a great crisis that shook my deepest insides and gave meaning to the service I’m now dedicating myself to. The accompaniment of life processes from trust in trust, from the awareness that we are particles beating in one heart, recognizing that we need each other so much from peace and from love to light the miracle and hope.
It is difficult for me to name everything that has not name. The world of the spirit does not have logic or is rational. Fortunately, I have only been able to synthesize what I have walked in, but the wild, mysterious, free and profound part of my relationship with the life teacher, with the path, with my beloved teachers, with the spirit, with the pachamama, with the master plants, with the water, with the mountains, with my ancestors, with the garden of my heart. I really do not feel able to develop beyond my own look or smile.
I am still curious, I continue to surprise myself as if I knew each time again the surprise, I continue to recognize in my family the most wonderful of schools, I keep beating with my heart and I remain willing to change and continue to heal from the deepest gratitude.