I am in Love

I am in love with my life right now.  I am in love with all the walking I’ve been doing.  I walk to get groceries, I walk to markets, I walk to get coffee, I walk to dinners and to Pilates.  It’s funny that even in such a tiny place people think it’s strange to walk everywhere.  But this is the way I’d like to start living my life so I thought I’d give it a try.  And it brings me peace.  The only other form of transportation I’ve been using is the bus system.  A bus system that is technically unorganized yet makes much more sense to me than the systematic and scheduled way of much of the rest of the world.  Here to catch a bus, you simply walk along the side of the road, wait to hear a honk, turn to make sure it’s a bus, wave, and it stops for you to get on.  There are no routes here so if you need to go somewhere that’s “technically” off-route, you are taken there.  If there are other people on the bus going elsewhere, they come along too.  There’s no rush, there’s no system, and I love it.  It’s people working together and being kind to one another.  Here’s a photo from my first bus ride.

I was beyond happy to have figured out how the buses work and thrilled to be in such a small space where speaking English was the minority.  I love being the minority.  I love the new experience of talking to people and not being able to understand them even though they’re speaking English.  I now know what it’s like to just nod and say yes because it’s easier to pretend you understand than make further failed attempts at communicating. 

I love that if you want a plastic bag at the grocery store it must be purchased in efforts to reduce waste and consumption.  In an odd way I even love the higher prices on groceries because it makes you appreciate and savor a box of cookies that much more.  These small things make me feel more connected.

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In Austin I begin each day at 4:30am sitting in front of my computer doing work.  This is usually after getting my typical 4-5 hours of sleep and running on exhaustion.  A dear friend of mine once told me that what we do when we first wake up sets the tone of our entire day which turns into our entire life – saying this in an effort to encourage me to save the work for later and start off with a slow breakfast and a book.  Because I’m most productive in the mornings, I didn’t really like this advice but I now see the wisdom in this.  I’ve known for awhile that the structure of my days isn’t sustainable nor does it make me very happy so it’s time to try something different.

I often hear myself saying that I want my life to be like a vacation and while I know there is a part of this that’s unrealistic, I also believe that parts of a vacation lifestyle can be pulled into daily living.  Two things I’ve found that make me incredibly happy are taking my time in the mornings and using my feet for transportation.  Maybe this means my personal life will take on even less structure (sorry, friends!) but we have only one life and it’s too short to not do the things that keep our hearts smiling.