Moving … and helping a friend

This is going to be a busy week as I finish packing up boxes and move myself into a slightly different place which will actually be closer to the part-time job, and has the environment I need for a more peaceful existence.

I won't go into the details, but sometimes the energy of a place can affect too many aspects of one's life to be enjoyable. When we are younger we seek out places where we can bounce about and have others with similar energies. But there is a reason why senior homes and assisted living are not necessarily bad.

That is NOT where I am heading yet, but I do want people around me who have a sense of their direction and balance and I found a location and a nice little home that I hope is going to fulfill my expectations, not far from where I have been living.

A brand new kitchen and a nicer view...

The outbuilding to the right is the studio…can be heated.

Best of all, it has a brand new kitchen, space for a dining room table and room in the back for a studio where I can have all my art activities. I am truly excited and by this time next week have the intention to be settled.

Another delightful aspect is the closeness to a park so I can go walking or biking without fearing for my life on the roads.

One of my Intender buddies is also looking to move things around in her life and she has a practically brand new camper in Yuma, AZ that she would like to sell.
It is one that has a queen bed, bath, and a nice kitchen with pop-outs for the living and dining area.

If you are looking for something like that as a winter retreat, contact me and I will forward the photos to you.

We've had a mild winter, according to the locals, but this place also has a pellet stove, which will help with heating should winter get nastier between now and April, and certainly will be more economical.

Work continues to challenge me and time will tell whether or not this racehorse can make it around the track.

So, dear readers, wherever you are in the world, I hold the intention that your life is coming together in this new year of 2014 and you are being inspired and excited by what is coming for you. And the weather isn't too cold….

The Ides have marched...

On the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle earlier this month, I went over for
a truly wonderful and therapeutic Lomi-Lomi massage. Brisk trip, tho.

I simply cannot believe that March is about half done!! This Sunday will be St. Patrick's day, a reminder of loved ones who have left me (curiously both my parents left for the Other Side in mid-March) and my beloved "Pe-ott" (Patrick worked for my family for years after arriving in NH from Ireland.) thought this day was all about him. For me it certainly was.

This has been a challenging time for me on many levels; I have finally had to admit that 'at my age' has validity when it comes to trying to have a new career, taking care of someone else, and being obliged to get up on someone else's schedule. I simply cannot do it. It was only a couple of years ago I decided that I had taken my last ski trip. I didn't know that weekend that it was my last, but the following year when everyone was getting all excited about planning their next trip, I realized I was not experiencing my usual rush of enthusiasm for it. My memories are rich with the whoosh of snow flying past me as I race down Suicide Six or the skiing the black diamonds at Sun Valley, but my body does not care to refresh those memories now.

Instead I am focusing on my watercolor painting skills (photos of said paintings will be posted soon; I have completed three!), repairing my back from either stress or something else, walking along the sandy beaches nearby or woodland paths to capture an eaglet at the top of a tree, and other somewhat sedentary exercise. I swim at the local pool most mornings and do water aerobics and that seems to be having a good effect on the back/muscles.

The juvenile eagle has not bent the tree over with its weight; the tree was
already heading in that direction and makes a lovely perch. Our grey
days prevail at present, so it is hard to get a great shot.

Another trip to Colombia must be planned, but my doctor doesn't want me traveling until he feels the back is stronger and progress is slow. For those following the Twins story, they seem to be doing all the things babies do at the right time, but I haven't seen them for several months. Perhaps I will have a chance to see them before I go back.

What is joyful for me is that I am clear about my direction once again, and although any dreams I might have had about being 'in service' have been foreshortened, there are other ways I can - on a more reasonable schedule - be of assistance. And I have learned much from this experience. Including being extraordinarily grateful for good health and eyesight. My multi-decades old body still manages to do many things quite well and has put up with my varied eating habits which have not always been good for it. Together we are changing that, too. Here is an interesting link about the things that are going on, just in case, dear reader, you have been wondering why you, too, are evaluating directions or plans.

Reflecting on the start of 2013

Cathedral de Barichara at night New Year's Eve 2013

It has been an interesting start to 2013, surrounded by hundreds of people and yet quite definitely very alone, but not lonely. Christmas and New Year's holiday in Barichara, Santander, Colombia, S.A. is usually pretty busy anyhow, but this year must have set some records. All the hotels were occupied, the streets were crowded with cars, and every day it was a challenge to navigate the sidewalks and streets with all the traffic and people.

Riding a motorcycle was really hazardous because the visitors were unaccustomed to the narrow streets and seldom looked before opening their doors to see if anyone was passing. I gave up riding altogether because I did not want to either be the cause or effect of this crowding.

Old Year is burned while rockets are launched.

There was another demonstration of this concentration of visitors in what is really quite a small area. After the fireworks on New Year's eve, apparently there was a confrontation between local young men and young men whose parents have vacation homes here. I don't know the details, so I won't say more than the issue of alcohol was clearly a contributing factor in the clash and that I sense the 'town and gown' problem is not going to go away as more and more families choose to have Barichara as their vacation get-away spot.

The over 30-minute firework display was impressive and very loud as rockets and display fireworks were set off near the Cathedral. The burning of the Old Year (in effigy) must have been watched by over 2,000 people around the square, young and old.

In previous years I have enjoyed the display from La Loma, but for various reasons that was not where I ended up. And after days of early morning explosions, late night booms and blasts, it was my fervent hope that this culmination of light and noise would bring some peace and quiet back to this Andean village.

An explosion of fireworks over the parque in Barichara.

Sadly on the same night as the fireworks, there was a fire in the Eco-forest which did a lot of damage. (The Eco-forest is a three-year old project to teach the youngsters about saving native trees and plants.) It  was not known for certain what the cause was, (at least not as of today) but with the lack of rain, the trees and bushes are tinder dry. So it was no surprise at the level of involvement and scary to think how a fire could have a devastating effect on this area if it got started and it was not controlled quickly. Since there are no local 'bomberos' (firefighters), it could definitely be a problem.

It still disturbs me that visitors think it is appropriate to damage our walls with their graffiti. I wish there was some kind of fine for this.

I am sure a lot of people really enjoyed their visit here (and were respectful of this national heritage), and the merchants most certainly benefitted from a vacation period where people were buying things, going to the restaurants and markets, using the taxis, enjoying the recreational resources and musicians were in great demand for all the nightly dances. This definitely was a happening place for the past three weeks, but it is also clear that many of the locals are burned out with the pressure to provide services, often from very early in the day until quite late at night.

Why bring this up? Because it means that the popularity of Barichara may be its undoing unless the mayor and other civic leaders address the challenges of growth. In the past year I can see lots of new houses being constructed and while this does bring employment to many, it also creates enormous dissatisfaction among those who were promised a chance to have a small casa in the proposed barrio to the south, but after two years the development seems to have stalled.

No one wants this colonial village to maintain its quaintness and specialness more than I do. And a couple of ideas I have I think will help to do that. Here they are:

1) During holiday weekends and special events like Feria, eliminate parking in the central park area  and provide small bussettas to transport people from the designated parking areas into the central part of town.
2) Establish a fine for defacing any building or walls anywhere in the village and post notices which warn people of the consequences if they are caught. Enforce those fines and after a few serious enforcements including posting a notice of the names of people who were fined in a public place, it may have the desired effect of causing people to at least think twice before gouging their messages into the walls.
3) Limit use of fireworks to specific days and times so that people can be sure of having good sleep.
4) Make the public toilets available, post information about where they are and keep them maintained.
5) Put out more trash containers and post requests for people to use them; if possible have recyclable and paper trash division.

Central parque of Barichara during Navidad 2012.

I have passed this information on to the local leadership and I hope some of these ideas will be implemented. I know progress is inevitable, I just hope it will be managed.

For me, no resolutions this year - just continuing to offer intentional support where it is needed.