I Miss Mexico

 Having spent considerable time in Mexico since I was 3 1/2-4 years old I felt all the world was my culture of course at that age your brain is not cognitive. Rather just completing its cognitive development. But cellularly every cell held the memory of those excursions into another culture. All children need to travel out of the country in their formative years. In this way we become multicultural! 

I don’t think I’m Special when I’m in another country, or when I return,  I just belong. I belong to the world. My family was gracious that way plus I was born into the melting pot of Pittsburgh PA. I’ve lived around the country, back east, Maryland, where my great great uncles dairy farm was at Sugarloaf Mountain. 

So many sensory memories there. And also our farm in West Va.  Then Virginia Beach, I was introduced to yoga there and practiced yoga on the beach when I was 17 years old. 

I lived in Charleston too a few years. 

Illinois 

 Texas,  held captive there way too long  

Charleston was different. Spanish moss hanging from the trees, swaying in the breeze. Somehow it was akin to the southern drawl of the Deep South. 

Short stint in Japan, Northern Honshu. I love Japan. 

Washington. I’ve lived here now 34 years I think. 

And I’m wanting to live in Vancouver bad awhile still. 

I go there quite a lot but not since Covid. I’m hoping to stay a month this fall. And I have spent weeks in Portland and on the Oregon coast. But I miss Mexico. 

I spent quite a lot of time in the city ( Mexico City) and San Miguel de Allende. In the mountains and it’s a colonial town. 

Yes I miss it there. 

I’ll post some photos one day. 

But for now I’m in this Parsduse where everything in in reach within less than 4 hours drive. The Sound is by my house. The ocean is a few ferry rides and drive away. Canada, Vancouver a few hours. The snow country 4 hours. Rain forests a few hours. Volcanoes. Etc. 

I’ve spent many years backpacking around here. That was something extraordinary! 

I miss the time steeped in crawling out of tents. Almost getting eaten by bears and trying to keep raccoons out of my food. 

The joys of life. I’ll write more about them later as I reflect upon my adventures and misadventures. 

Thnx for stopping to read. 

A few photos of my beach and local stomping grounds. 

January 2024 the beach after a small storm

 Christmas Eve shopping a bit in Langley on the Island. 

And a short story…

The mysterious man….

It’s early but it’s dark .

Dark with lights that are always festive in Langley .

Langley  Washington,  it’s a lovely little community on Whidbey Island, the second largest island in the contiguous US. 

I come here  to enjoy the little shops, the community at night. .. with  stores lit up outside/ inside with twinkling lights, festive here anytime of the year. 

I think especially festive here now before Christmas in 2023. 

Visited the rug store, Music for the Eyes, they have rugs, chapan, yurt bands, jewelry. Items from Uzbekistan and Nepal, Central Asia.  Old and new jewelry,  beads and all kinds of things for yurts all you know, antique kinds of things and new kinds of things and it’s one of my favorite places on the island, so,  when I came out I spotted an unusual man. 

It was very dark over there. Not very many lights, he was tall and lean, was wearing a hat that looked like it came from a certain period of time, old and ancient, with  a long coat of a sort of, you know, typical of the chapan type but looked warm, woolen, embroidered. Gourded seams creating an elegant flair, his boots with a look of having come off the steppes of Mongolia perhaps. His beard curled upward in a wave from his chin, and his nose, the only feature slightly visible, was classical and elongated, but beautifully shaped. Everything about him down to a small igloo cooler, the way he held it near his chest, looked so different and out of, not only this place, but this time as well. 

Maybe from some older time in Uzbekistan; Samarkand or  Bukhara,  somewhere on the silk roads, …and when he walked, he walked slowly and mysteriously, and you know,  like he could be lost or like he didn’t exist at all perhaps.  

I had to wonder does he really exist at all? 

Later in my vehicle I drove around to see if I could find him. I couldn’t see him anywhere he just dissolved into the night…

Collections arrived back to me from museum

I've been nursing overly dry eyes and became ill with some fever and chills and pain. Ordered grapefruit seed extract and began using 10 drops in water 3 x a day. In a day and a half was much better but had been a little concerned due to the amount of pain in abdomen and the fever. Today went shopping on the island so i'll post photos. I spent most of my time at the rug store and got beads etc for Jewelry It was a gorgeous day. My collections arrived back from the museum, so some work now to do.

This store in Langley WA on Whidbey Island is called Music for the Eyes. I highly recommend you go here for beads and rugs and a general sense of the wonder of antiquity. I understand they now have shipments coming from Morocco and on their site photos of their recent shopping trip there. They don’t sell online. You must journey to their store. Update Nov 9th. 
 

rarely disappoints