finding a material microclimate is not rare, noticing its interconnections requires intention, but what is rarer still is letting the attention turn inward: using the material microclimate as a threshold to the immaterial one, getting so lost in nature that you end up finding yourself in it, with it, because of it.
when lost in myself, i go for a walk, a long one. im a speed walker, i race through the sidewalks, a racing horse. only looking forward, nothing can stop the train of thought. actually, traffic can stop it, because being run over is not an option. so traffic is where i snap back to reality. i have to stop and wait.

in that pit stop i caught a glimpse of a white shimmer over my shoulder, it was bright enough to make me look twice, and i was curious enough to get closer and try to identify it. i was in front of a Passiflora caerulea vine, alone in the midst of the vast green of an Abelia chinensis, and i knew what it meant. Agraulis vanillae, Espejito butterfly, whose life cycle depends solely on the Passiflora plant.
next thing i noticed was eaten leaves, eaten leaves mean bugs. i found myself hunched over the vine, turning leaves upside down. i was looking for caterpillars.

and i found them, and not only them. there was also a passiflora fruit being monopolized by a Holhymenia histrio, bees buzzing in my face, red little spots from the Cacoscelis nigripennis popping up. i saw an egg, multiple eggs. little caterpillars making their way to the juiciest leaves, big and fat ones parkouring their way through the coiled tendrils. a mature butterfly passed through and spread its wings to the sunlight. i was collecting its phases.

it was an oasis for all these bugs. and an oasis for myself too. i got lost in the vine and through it an internal path cleared up. childish excitement emerged, i was screaming inside, but so loud it was audible from the outside.
it was not only the excitement of having found this microclimate, not only gratitude for witnessing this piece of life. i was grateful to myself too, for stopping, for being curious, for giving myself the time and space to explore this little world i came across. for talking alone and exclaiming onomopatopeyas out loud. wow, what?!, amazing, are you kidding me? ha!

a storm took over in the immaterial oasis and picked me up, i was looking at myself from above. i was one of the Passiflora coiled tendrils, helping myself be stable and secure, trying to lean on neighboring others but strangling on myself, becoming a knot.
but with the shakes caused by the storm the knot dissolved, the coil traced back its own path, and soon it spiraled around and above itself, embracing itself, protecting itself.

neighbours walking around without noticing this hunched over adult, all hooded because of the bitter cold, taking pictures, thinking out loud. dogs not even sniffing me. the oasis seemed invisible to everyone but me.

it is me who allowed this second oasis to thrive, it exists in me thanks to the first one. the material one, the one everyone can see, but not all look into. that's the entry point, i'm the bridge (and the seeker) to get to the immaterial one. as the Passiflora needed the Abelia to climb on, i needed to be lost, to walk, the traffic to stop and the flower to catch my eye.