Eli
Super Nomad
Posts: 1471
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: L.B. Baja Sur
Member Is Offline
Mood: Some times Observing, sometimes Oblivious.
|
|
Just walking down the street
It was early for the supermarket to be closed where I buy my coffeemate, but there it was closed. So I had my choice to walk back downtown to a
supermarket there or up to the supermarket in the old neigborhood where I lived before in the banana tree nest. As I walked I recalled, it has been
more than a month since I had been back to this side of town.
How easy it is to fall into yet another daily routine living interspect in a tiny world that revolves around the studio, my room, the courtyard of the
posada, the gallery, the artist garden, the few internet cafes, a couple of great taco stands, the neighborhood mercado, a couple of blocks down to
the zocolo all form the neighborhood where I now live and fill my days that go way to quicky.
As I walk up in the old neighborhood, I pass a dark street and see stars, ah I miss stars. It will be just a few more weeks and I will be back in my
true home, (if there is such a thing outside of my head). Back to millions of stars, and the sound of the sea lapping on the shore, and a delicious
quite darkness like I haven't seen in almost 8 months. Ah yes, I'll be sitting under the palapa of my casita, listening to the loud silence of the
desert, home, home, soon enough, I will be home where I belong.
Meanwhile, I walk up to the busy blvd. where the supermarket is that has the creamer that will make the all difference in a decent cup of nescafe.
Again, I relflect on going home to a real cup of coffee, like we make at my house. Typical B.C. ranch style, boiling water poured thru fresh ground
coffee in a telega coffee sock that sits in one of those old fashioned enamal coffee pot's. Don't need coffeemate to doctor it up the way we make it
at home, it is fine just as it is, on it's own.
So with coffee mate now stashed away in my satchal, I take off down the busy street, hitting a healty stride as I pass the first class bus station. An
older woman rushes up behind me, she is in a worn, torn pink dress, two long gray-black braids down her back, a simple black sweater coverd by her
reboso, and thin sandles, she is a county woman, no doubt about her. And I am sure she is going to spare change me which makes me feel trapped. But
no, this lesson is not about money but just simply help giving directions, she is looking for the Zocolo and a neighborhood near there.
So I explain that one goes two blocks the way we are walking, and than down a few blocks and than over again and than I realize by the confused frown
in her brow that I am losing her. Well, what the heck, I never could give directions and for crine out loud, that is after all the direction I am
taking, and I invite her to walk along with me. She is so small, so strong, even though my stride is longer, she naturally walks faster than me. We
are kind to each other, but not nosey, I do not ask her why she is in the city and she does not ask me where I am from. It is just comfortable walking
with her, and I know she feels the same about me. We talk about how it is better to walk than take a taxi, she is way proud, and we don't even talk
about the cost of it, but I know she could even less afford it than me. And I mention that my grandmother always said something to the extent of "If
You don't use it, you'll lose it", and we agree how lucky we are that we have the strenght to enjoy this walk and how fortunate we are that Oaxaca is
the kind of city where one can walk in the dark on a quite street and not be afraid. Our little adventure comes to an end as We get to my neigborhood
enternet cafe and I walk with her the other half a block down to the corner and point down the street, the zocolo is 4 to 6 blocks stright away, she
will not get lost from here. And we shake hands, and she asks nothing more of me, that is all she needed, directions and some company. And well, me
too, her company was real, real good, a blessing to say the least, something to help my sleep tonight be sweet. And so I wish the same to you, sweet
dreams all, may angeles vist and give you peace and hopefully take you back to your vision of B.C. sooner than you think.
|
|
|
Mike Humfreville
Super Nomad
Posts: 1148
Registered: 8-26-2003
Member Is Offline
|
|
I hope,
that the voice you've found and fed over your most recent experiences on the mainland follows you home to Baja. I hope you see many old sights with
renewed vision and heart and can carry us further into your world. Else you may find so many of us hanging on a whisp of teardrops.
Thank you Sara.
|
|
|
Gypsy Jan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4275
Registered: 1-27-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: Depends on which way the wind is blowing
|
|
Spinning gold threads
out of the tangled skein of common, irritating and disturbingly random (seemingly) everyday life and then weaving it into a seamless tale of uplifting
goodness and faith.
That, mi amiga, is a gift from God.
|
|
|
Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
|
|
Gyspy Jan
You have that so right. I just wish I could have said it so well.
Sara, perhaps you should keep that as an introduction to your book!
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
|
|
|
Eli
Super Nomad
Posts: 1471
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: L.B. Baja Sur
Member Is Offline
Mood: Some times Observing, sometimes Oblivious.
|
|
Well, You got to know that I am just sitting here red faced gosh I donno, what does one say to prasie put togeather in a form that is so cleanly
prisice and poetic as Gypsy Jan's. Is a simple thank you even in a league with the profundity of your statement?
I expect the good news at this point is; Have you ever noticed that critics have such an outstandingly good time putting togeather put downs, but when
it comes to praise, it is usually just a short phrase.
Well, miricle of miricles, the kindness returned to me for my simple reflections of just taking a walk are ten fold the goodwishes I put out. This is
very nice in deed.
I don't know Mike, how long the muse will be with me, if I will still feel this creativity when I return home. In the past, upon returning from a
trip, I have always put away my art and gone back to work.
This time, I will not be going back to work, but I will hit the ground running;
My daughter is in bedrest waiting for our little Paloma to fly in, she is due to arrive end of March and not any earlier we hope. So, I want to do
everything I can to help them out for the next couple of months, domestic stuff, like cooking, cleaning, even grocery shopping.
This should be interesting, I am not real domestic; haven't grocery shopped in years, the wandering I do in the markets here is more of a scensory
experinse, smell, see, listen. I don't usually buy much more than a few bananas, a half a cantalope, some cheese or a little bread. Pusing around one
of those big carts doing a full on shopping at Costco is a completly different matter.
Than there is Shakespeare, we have the play to put togeather, even though I am only doing a very small cameo roll, still I will be busy learning my
few lines, and besides I do a lot of line feeding. I am full on thespian and really a ham at heart and want to play every single roll the master has
ever written, so I am always glad to feed lines and get to study as many parts to his plays as I can.
That Shakespeare is the Man you know; the master of redundency and the great explorer of the simple every day ways of humanity. Sure do love the way
he dances words, how he plays them back and forth at each other and most of all how he provides insight into how we haven't changed a bit since his
time, still getting ourselves into the same predicments, just wearing different costumes is all.
Than there is Ol Solovino to bring back to life. Last I heard they are still waiting for that silly lion dog to go to all the primary schools from
Boca de Alamo to San Bartolo to act out the message of How to take care of your loving critters, how to react to a strange dog on the street and of
course the whys and wherefores of spay and nuerting our pets.
There is an art gallery, not abandoned, but in need of it's misstriss to shake out a few cobwebs and to set out the new exibits. Looks like I will be
bringing home the work of a few of my favorite Oaxacan artist.
I am hopeing to paint a mural on some giant garage doors to point to way to the gallery on the road down from the highway. I have some ideas there
that I am very exicited abou taking out of my minds eye and putting together in real life.
And, and, and there is this book that Bernie and I keep taking about.
Worst case scenerio, you will hear more stories from me when I am back here in Oaxaca this summer, and can get back then to my art.
I fear Bernie is right, I am out of control with a shot gun of insperations, and not very good aim. Still, got to say, I sure am having fun. Ba-boom,
Sara
|
|
|
Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
|
|
Sara
Do you remember when we first started writing and most of our thoughts started out with that 'lady' the muse? Well, now I fear that she has abandoned
me and flown to another shoulder--one where she can whisper into your ear and keep your soul revved up and making such simple things somehow so very
important.
Go to that church you visited after meeting that person on the street and ask the lady there if you should write that book we keep talking about.
Listen to her answer for she will never direct you to the wrong path.
I am already thinking of how I can work---"Oh Sure! I knew that Sara lady when"-----into my conversations with those I wish to impress.
Keep going, girl!
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
|
|
|
Eli
Super Nomad
Posts: 1471
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: L.B. Baja Sur
Member Is Offline
Mood: Some times Observing, sometimes Oblivious.
|
|
Bernie,
I am sorry to hear that you feel abandoned by the muse. I assure you she does not leave one shoulder for another, sometimes it is just what is.
You know better than any the months of silence that have insued in my writing over the last couple of years. Sometimes I am hot, than sometimes I am
not. Even since I have been in Oaxaca, there was a few months of silence, tears and depression.
Never flew so high that I didn't fall as low, scary stuff this riding in the clouds, never know when you are going to land hard on you ash, or for how
long it is going to last.
So, when it is good, got to go with it. Yes, I want to do the book, but editing, and the disapline, and after all the years of work, I just wanna play
for a little while longer. I know, I know; La Vida no esta comprado.
|
|
|
Santiago
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3500
Registered: 8-27-2003
Member Is Offline
|
|
Eli - thanks for these postings from the mainland - please keep them up when you get to BCS.
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
