Ten years ago I went to Costa Rica to volunteer on a farm in the jungle, learn spanish, write music, and escape my heart-ache. I brought with me a book of Bartok string quartets to study, my ipod to listen to music, my composition book to write in. Through my 8 week stay, the jungle ate everything I brought there to get done. The moisture from the jungle caused my i-pod to stop working, my composition book got wet and moldy, the Bartok string quartet book eventually couldn’t even open because of all the mildew. I learned that by fully entering the jungle -- this beautiful and powerful force of nature, I couldn’t bring any preconceived ideas, an agenda -- a things-to-do list. The jungle taught me the most valuable lesson I have ever learned --to listen to the world around me. The sounds and music I heard in the Jungle were more incredible than any music I could have heard on my i-pod. I learned to look around and breathe in the sights and sensations of the richly layered eco-system. I learned that the less I did, the more I became.