Osprey - 6-18-2015 at 06:11 AM
Safety Zone
Got my head in a very nice place right now. I feel safe, safe and warm. This particular kind of safe is where you are still vulnerable but you don’t
care, you don’t fear the things that could harm you, kill you.
The way I got to this safe, warm place was to grow old, to outlive my enemies and those who might hold me in contempt for things I did, or worse,
things I should have done.
This is not an awareness youth can imagine – it’s strictly an old people thing. I take some pride in it because not every human reaches an age to get
this feeling. My body is failing, wearing away but, right this minute I feel like my old brain has perhaps grown more convoluted and hence holds more
synapse than when I was a youth. I don’t think faster than before but the white noise that clogs the electrical boulevards, highways and transmission
lines is now a gentle mist, not the filtering pall it was when the rest of me was quick and lean.
Perhaps, after living this long in a tiny Mexican fishing village, the indomitable spirit of my neighbors has invaded my space, my home, my body and
my mind. Maybe the overarching simplicity of the warmth and safety of passing days on end with a full belly and being free of pain or the threat of
pain has, for me, boiled everything down to the simple syrup of life.
Being safe is not the end game of retirement. You must have interesting things that fill your days and nights, things to look forward to from one day
to the next. Once the work and worry goes away, the safety creeps in, there’s more room for pleasant pastimes and leisure time to fill the void, the
place where used to dwell the nags and nettles of trouble with money or health or relationships. I pity those gentle souls who must keep moving or die
– those who can’t keep guilt away on days spent just idling, who are driven to putter with projects, can never find peace like mine when I sometimes
choose to play the happy sluggard from bed to hammock to close of day.
Pescador - 6-18-2015 at 06:52 AM
It is such a joy to know you and get the chance to read your poignant descriptions of life transitions. I read prolifically but on my desk I have
printed copies of your writings and I find that I turn to them frequently to reflect or think about some issue that you have so completely addressed.
Writing has never been my forte but at a late old age I turned to music which has become the same kind of fascination and joy and some mornings I
wake up early because I have a special song or different way to play something that keeps me from sleeping any longer.
I have a new Jimmy Buffett song that says, "I don't want to live on that kind of Island, No, I don't want to swim in a roped off sea".
Maybe this all comes from living in a small fishing village.
Osprey - 6-18-2015 at 07:17 AM
Thanks Jim, as you know I don't publish and sell these little pieces so my payoff comes when readers tell me they were pleased or enlightened by what
I wrote. The writing comes easier the more I do but what is not easy is to find just the right words to convey core feelings and complex conditions of
the body human and his turf. I suppose every hobbyist who gets good at making lures or chairs or bottle openers feels the same sense of pride that the
plan worked, he's pleased a friend or stranger.
And thanks to Doug for allowing me to post some pieces that are not directly about Baja California.
It's not easy to find just the right words?
AKgringo - 6-18-2015 at 07:45 AM
It seems that just the right words seem to stream from your state of consciousness! The rest of us can only marvel that you can pack a paragraph of
description into just a few words!
You always leave us wanting more.
baja43 - 6-20-2015 at 07:46 AM
This is the third day I have read this piece and it's just as poignant this time as it was the first...perhaps more so. Thank you for guiding me to
think and reflect with your mind's eye, as well as my own.
MMc - 6-20-2015 at 07:52 AM
Osprey, You find the right words far better then most, I love reading your pros, thank you for sharing.
[Edited on 6-20-2015 by MMc]
Robertofox - 6-20-2015 at 09:08 AM
Osprey. You nailed it again. Keep up the great writing. I do enjoy reading your words.........bob