New Place, New View

Okay, I am back. No point in describing all that has happened in the past 6 months or so since my last blog…yes, a lot has happened but I also have observed that many casual bloggers (like, non-commercial, blog-to-get-the-thoughts-out-of-my-head types) fade in and out of cyberspace. SOOOO, now I am feeling like getting the thoughts rattling around in my head out of there. For the time being.

We still live in Mexico and still love it. A lot. Even more than when we first arrived, exactly one year ago. But now, instead of living on the beach (west coast), we live in the middle in the mountains, in San Miguel de Allende. This is a 500-year old colonial city with a very rich history and cultural tradition. In fact, it is called El Corazon de Mexico, not only because of its geological location (practically dead-center), but because of its heritage. This region is where the War for Independence — El Grito — was sounded in 1810. Think Paul Revere in Boston, but add in Philadelphia, New York and whoever else had a stake in the American Revolution and you get an idea.

We came here in August just for 3 weeks to go to language school at Warren Hardy. Side-note: this is the BEST school for folks who have been out of the discipline of schoolwork for many years. Mi esposo y yo LOVED it.

OK, 3 weeks turned into  two more months. Why? First off, the weather is incredible — warm most of the year except for January-February when it is cool (hey, we are in the mountains, 5500 feet!). But after we got used to the weather, the appeal is really the people, the diversity of culture, the 500-year architecture and the wealth of heritage and tradition. At one point we looked at each other and said, “this is Mexico!”.

While I love the beach, the water, the sun, this area is incredibly stimulating and rich in learning and activities.

It’s funny, but I had heard about San Miguel for several years and dismissed it as a “gringo hangout”. While there are a lot of norteamericanos (yeah, there is a REASON!), percentage-wise it is a muy pequeno slice of the population. I speak more spanish here than on the coast where, because it is mostly geared to the tourist industry, lots of locals speak english.

After several days we thought, “why dont we spend the winter here and see how we like it?”  Just thinking like that was actually pretty liberating: there was nothing mandating that we be on the coast — we were just renting and all our business activity is on the web. One thing that we were truly going to miss was all our friends on the coast…Sue, Larry, Eddie, Roberto, Ann, Carolyn, Jonathan, Kim, Chris y mas….But then we thought, hey we will just bring them here! They will DEFINITELY want to escape the humid (and I mean HUMID) coast in the summer. Which is 5 months or so.

Turns out it is more than just the winter — we decided to move here

I am not surprised how this worked out….I had been praying very specifically for many months about how to learn spanish more effectively. It seemed to be a struggle, even though I was taking a conversation class 3 days a week in San Pancho. It wasnt just because I wanted to learn another language as a skill — the POINT was/is to be more effective in expressing ideas, more to the point, metaphysical ideas, with local people. It is that important to me.

When we started at our language school, I knew from the first day that this was the right place to learn. And then it has become easier and easier to listen and speak here in San Miguel. It felt to me, then, that being here was an answer to my prayers.

Language school continues — I start the 4th level in February (Subjunctive Verbs, which is 7 tenses — I learned the first 7 tenses through Level 3). and THEN total immersion classes.

Another indication that this is home: a quasi-feral cat adopted us at our rental last fall. Guapo is about two-years old and he is the most loving and expressive cat I have ever had. We brought him to our new casa and he is now an inside cat. Solomente. More on Guapo and our spiritual healing experiences. Right now he is sitting on my desk watching me.

What I love most about Mexico is that it requires me to be very present with God in my consciousness: God as Mind (Wisdom communicating Itself to all), God as Love (unconditional care and guidance), and God as Life (the omni-action of good). Everyday brings physical proof of this spiritual activity.

More to come.