The holidays "Decembrina" have come to an end. Today, the Sunday before school starts again in Mexico, the crowds have mostly left the beaches and the streets of Zihuatanejo Bay. This has been a busy holiday time...we've been busy and so have the townspeople. And I think everyone had the holiday that they wanted. I watched with tremendous joy as the Mexicans returned to their favorite seaside resort to once again spend time with their families and friends in the beauty and warmth of the ocean we love. When they go on vacation, they embrace the notion of relaxation and relationships in a way that has been eschewed by many who feel the need to see more, do more and travel to different places each year. Not so here in Mexico, as returning travellers fill the hotels and room rentals that they have come to love. 
We moved back to our condo. at Casa Ceiba after sending Paul and his daughters back to their lives in the US and Canada. Paul and his family had a tough year..so when we said "Feliz Ano" to them, we really meant it...may 2013 be the start of health and renewed happiness for each of them. It's good that we pick one day to mark the start of a "new year"..but in our lives, we know that is not really what happens. We go to bed one day and get up the next, and life goes on....if we are lucky!
This year, two people who we know didn't have that same "good luck". They were our neighbours, each named John, one whom we met here in Zihuatanejo, and the other, in Victoria, and their lives ended on New Year's Day. Both had suffered in the past years and their lives were no longer full of the quality we hope for. So now, in the January "gringo travel season" when the retired from Canada and the US return here to their familiar condos. at Casa Ceiba and La Ceiba, and hears the news of our lost friend, each realizes how lucky they are to be able to once again travel to this country and escape the vagaries of winter in the North.
So what makes this a place to come back to year after year...it's both the sameness and the surprises. It's the familiar and the new, and it's the feeling of freedom and adventure that greets you each day here. Every shopping trip, every walk, every encounter delivers an opportunity to learn and encounter a piece of life that is unexpected. It's not always the beauty or the tourist experiences that are here, it's the little things. It's the look in people's faces as they come to know and recognize me, it's the happiness that lights the eyes of each child when you offer them the smallest of gifts. And it's knowing that life here is full without the volume of goods that are the norm in Canada and the US.
I love my life here, it is simple, but full. I appreciate what I've been given...an opportunity to help others here who depend on me. So this new year, I want to deepen my knowledge of Mexico, it's people and it's ways so I can be a good citizen of the world, this country and my body...which is really the only true "home" where I live.
My children each have developed an incredible knowledge about their bodies and respect for their health and how to live and they have reminded me of how important what I do each day is for my future. So I hope I can learn from them, in the way they've learned from me. I will miss Eric terribly when he leaves on Tuesday, but will be counting the hours till Kristen arrives. And for Amy and Patrick, my heart will be with them as they begin their honeymoon in Thailand and the start of their new lives in 2013. Although our homes are far apart, you will always be with me in my "home" - my heart and my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment