There I am "A". I am almost exactly a week from going back to the other side of the world - literally the almost exact opposite. 29 hours en route back to California.
I have been here in Mauritius for over 7 months. I haven't been someplace other that the U.S. for that long since I was a kid. This adventure has had its ups and downs, but lately, I have been finding a nice rhythm with it and have enjoyed being away from the politics and extremism of the U.S..
It's funny how when you step outside of a place and look at it from a different angle that the political messaging becomes stark. Mauritius is a tiny little speck in the Indian Ocean. To be honest, I had never heard of the place- aside from the sad tale of the dodo bird before coming. It is a place where no one can lay claim- it was uninhabited until the 1500's. Every human is an import- every human is an immigrant. The only native creatures were either driven into extinction, or hang on on a tiny little shred of the island. A small national forest - a mere 5% of what once was exists. Somehow the inhabitants of this place manage to live in relative peace- Hindu. Muslim, Christian etc...Mauritius is a microcosm of the earth.
Anyhow- I am wrapping up projects, packing luggage and seeing friends and getting ready for the journey back to California. Then I will journey back to Mauritius again in a month or 2 or so after...then back again in December- a bi-antipodal existence on this tiny planet. Home- the pale blue dot.
My dear friend Sharon Lovejoy found STAR STUFF at the American Library Association's convention in Las Vegas and posted these images to FB.
She is there promoting some of her books and her first novel called Running out of Night- which is one of those rare stories that truly transports you to another time in history.
Thank you Sharon!
I have been reading Wild Ones by Jon Mooallen. Fascinating...has me thinking about the lens I see the world through. This is one of those books you finish and think about.
Just brilliant...Always loved Bill Moyers- grew up watching him and his careful,no-nonsense clear reporting. Here he is interviewing another admired truth seeker...humility- a beautiful thing- a courageous thing.
The adventure: date night watching the sun go down on a white beach with ghost-like crabs scamping into their homes- warm breezes, unfamiliar bird song, small creatures scampering up walls in the night chirping, a woman walking down the road in a brightly colored dress with a pile of wood on her head, a night sky with clear, countless stars and no light pollution to muddy the view. Friends from all over the globe on this tiny island trying to figure out how their story meshes with the one unfolding here.
It's a good adventure...and it is just beginning.
Book 9 in the Princess Posey series is in progress. :)
Just stumbled upon this video collage of Wes Anderson films called Centered. I am blown away. I love his work even more now...
You are only free when you realize you belong no place - you belong every place - no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.
- Maya Angelou
It's funny, well, not funny "ha ha", but the other kind- when we moved almost exactly to the other side of the planet, Fred thought that we would just simply "move". That it would be the simplest of things and we would just have a new life and that was it.
Well...what was good that did happen, was that Tristam is having such and a life changing experience and he was probably the number one reason why we moved when we did. Last night we were at a friend's home just down the path here with other friends and Tristam had his 2 best friends there- Matteo and Matilde. Matteo has lived all over the world and speaks 2 languages and Matilde the same- and the parents were all carrying on in French and our kid understood what they were saying- he couldn't formulate his response in French, but he definitely understood. It makes me think of me when I was a kid and my parents were expats and us girls spoke French at school and with our friends, German with out mom and English with our dad. We were children of the world too then...
This weekend we also went o a baby shower for the loveliest people- our friends Jerome and Carole. We were there with another neighbor and only French was spoken. Little baby Liam will be another international child - French father, Mauritian mother- growing up in a fast changing world with many languages spoken around him- and he will be a lucky kid-
In recent weeks, I have been struggling a bit. Being in Africa, we are removed from familiar surroundings. I have missed the smell of the Pacific in our Central Coast home. I have missed hot yoga with my friends ( we are now working on jerry-rigging a clothes iron and fan combo to heat up a room in our rental here so I can do Bikram). I so missed my critique group where I could read and hear educated feedback from my book peeps. I missed sushi and sauerkraut and kale and our neighbors and riding my bike and and and....on and on...but the thing is that I was missing the BIG picture...
That these few months are just a few months in the whole of our lives and they are an amazing opportunity to try things differently. Most people when they hit middle-age, either settle into whatever they are doing with either resignation (they are getting tired and whatever they are doing is "as good as it's going to get"...dreams passed them by- that sort of thing) or they are happy with where they are at and proceed along or they reinvent and push the envelope with this idea that life IS short and while you are here, what are you going to experience and what are you going to contribute. We chose the latter. And because Fred and I have such a strong friendship- we don't mind stepping into other world apart from one another for a month or two or three to accomplish some our own personal goals- which is the next thing- he is launching his project and I am heading back to our home to launch a few of my own :) Then rendezvous in Mauritius before heading out again. Life is good.
