One thing I adore about being in Mexico, is the "no problem" attitude that seems to dance all over the place, there. Things break, plans change, life happens, and well, it works out. What needs to be done gets done, without a whole lot of complaining or bad mood. Life shifts and we shift with it. A couple of years ago, we had to get to the other side of the village to get to our house. No cabs were around, so a friend of ours called her brother, assuring us that with his "camionetta," he could take Carol, me, and our suitcases. Great. How perfect! We sat down, waited - and had a good chuckle when a little 4-wheel motorcycle pulled up. We made jokes about it being our ride. It was yellow, after all. Ha ha. Well, it sure was yellow, and it WAS our ride. When we questioned (just a little) how we were going to all fit on there, the answer was "no problema!" When we questioned (just a little) where the suitcases were going to go, the answer, with a big smile, was "the trunk" - which turned out to be a bungee cord tied to the front. My goodness, we laughed so hard! And we got on, and the luggage got on too, and off we went, the three of us laughing and the suitcases dangling. We made it just fine. This morning, my friend and I walked into our adoptive bakery to get things ready for The Happy Café. This was only our second time there, and the last time, the light was on when we came in. This time, it was not, and for the life of us, we could not find a switch. It was 5 am, pitch dark, we had 100 pastries to bake in less than 3 hours - and no light. Not for one second did I sense any tension in the room. My friend immediately had a "no problem" attitude, and within minutes, we were peeling apples and sheeting dough with the oven light casting a warm glow, and an iPhone flashlight for good measure. It was great, it was fun, and it was easy. I love "no problem" people. With them, life becomes an adventure, a play. Things show up, and we shift a little to the left, a little to the right, still going where we want to go. There is no fear, there is no angst. We know we are going to get there - we just have not yet found how exactly how. It's a great skill to have, and the great news is that it can be quite contagious. Yesterday was a deeply fun day. I know that Deep and Fun don't always dance together, but for me yesterday, they did. Anacortes is our heart home, there is no doubt. One of our heart homes, at least. While we all move around the planet quite a bit lately, Anacortes is the place where we are the most likely to all end up together, most likely in the kitchen. Yesterday was such a day, with the added deliciousness of more loved ones joining in, including my kids' grandma, with whom I had not spent much time in the last 16 years. There was peach pie making (gluten free and gluten filled), lavender drying, stories telling, corn roasting, nail painting, dogs running around, and more. Barely a week after I signed on the dotted line, making this house officially my home (that's a whole story really worth telling, once I am able to get it from my heart to the keyboard), there we were all, celebrating, baking, eating. All three of my kids in one place for the day. Pies out of the oven, corn on the table, more food all over the place, we enjoyed the fruits of our work during a truly LOVEly dinner. I was in heaven and I could have sat there a week or two. I tried to press the slow motion button, and for a while, it almost worked. But life keeps on moving, and pretty soon the pace picked up again and it was time to clear the table. This is when I heard them. For the first time in several years. Three words which used to be as much part of dinner as a shaker of salt. Three words that have a very particular tone to them, three words which used to make me a bit on edge, but suddenly last night tasted better than Ben & Jerry's ice cream: "Mom.... I setttttttttt!" Read: Mom .... I set the table and I should not be made to clear it. Read: Someone else should clear the table. This from the lips of a 24 year old who looked just as giddily surprised as I was to hear these words jump out of her mouth. Yesterday, was a very happy day. |
SCARED OF THE SACRED
HAPPINESS SCHOOL:
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