A Look Back
As I swing gently in my hammock listening to the trill of the birds and the soft trickle of water from the nearby pool and look back over the last year, it’s almost impossible to reconcile in my mind.
Last year at this time I was living in my friends spare room with my little beagle cross puppy, working off my notice and waiting impatiently for January to arrive so that I could bundle my last few suitcases into the car and head for the airport and my new life.
My husband Chris had already started his and was gleefully sending me photos of palm trees, blue skies and tropical sunsets. Compared to the wet snow and freezing rain that I was dealing with, it looked like heaven.
Now that I have been here a while I realize that in many ways , it IS heaven and it reminds me of one of my favourite Tracy Chapman songs. I pull out my phone, click my Spotify app and smile as the heavy drumbeat of ‘Heaven’s Here on Earth‘ blends perfectly into the sounds around me.
Costa Rica is a truly amazing place to live, it’s not perfect (no place is) but it suits me perfectly. I love everything… from the startling blue of the sky that softens to a golden glow at dusk to the ridiculously loud thunderstorms with lightening that brightens the entire sky and the rain that comes down in buckets. It’s a world of dramatic beauty that somehow creates this amazing feeling of peace deep within my soul.
Perhaps the sense of peace comes from the fact that my life these days consists of all the things I love to do,
How could I possibly complain when a hard day at work means that I am standing in the sunshine aboard the Reliant serving drinks to tour guests and pointing out the manta rays as they jump.
A year ago this past October I had serious doubts about how this would all turn out. We were in the middle of trying to sell everything we owned (and we had a LOT of unnecessary STUFF) including our house and several cars. We had hundreds of listings on online marketplaces, we had yard sales, we gave things away to friends and family, we donated things… and it didn’t feel like we were making a dent.
We made it (barely), watching the last few truckloads roll away the day before the closing of the sale of the house. Some kind-hearted friends came over to help me clean up before the new owners arrived and then we packed the car full and headed to the little room in Kingston where I would be staying until January.
That in itself was an adventure. It was the first time I had been living alone since….ever, and the first time I had done so in a city. It was also the first time I had a place in a high rise building. I tried out Vietnamese food and went to movies alone, I took long walks through the city with Buddy, and introduced him to the joy of a dog park.
I love adventure. Not the death defying, rock climbing, jumping out of planes kind of adventure. The kind of adventure that takes me to new places, lets me try new foods (as long as they aren’t spicy) and teaches me about new things.
Maybe that’s why I’m loving it here. Not only am I seeing new things and tasting new things, but I am doing it in a country that is full of warm, happy, friendly people. I may not (yet) know my way around their language and I have certainly had instances when I have stared blankly into the face of a Tico who has just hit me with a barrage of Spanish at warp speed and I realize that I have NO idea what they just said…or instances where I find myself trying to somehow mime that I want two pineapples, one ripe, one not ripe while they look at me like I’m insane….but in the end, with much smiling and nodding- we work it out.
Wow, that was quite a run-on sentence…sorry about that.
The point that I am trying to make here is this. A little over a year ago I was living in Canada, driving in horrible weather to a back-breaking job and praying for the day when I would be here….and now I am….and it still seems somehow surreal.
I wake up in the morning and walk the dog in the sunshine while the birds chirp and huge blue butterflies flitter past. I sip my tea by the pool. I take people sailing… and I smile…and smile…and smile.
I can’t seem to help myself.
Pura Vida has taken over my life.
I hope that if you’re reading this, you have discovered the magic for yourself.
