Ah, to Linger in Oaxaca

My word for today is linger.  Our rushed day-to-day style at home whether retired, still working, student or homemaker is always fraught with some style of push and hurry. Even sometimes when we think we are relaxing, it’s hard not to make lists in our head, grapple with something we think so important, but are we losing the joy of just being?

This quote from the latest Oaxaca Times is such an inspiration!

“Over the last ten years I have kept close at hand these words from the great Mexican journalist German Dehesa: “Getting to Oaxaca is not a question of trains or planes: it requires an adventurous spirit and open heart… I suspect that Oaxaca’s location is neither geographical nor historical – it is mythical.”

It is getting close to leaving time here and I will miss the simplicity of this artistic oasis, and yet will welcome the ease of living that San Miguel Allende will provide-however there I will have to always ask them to converse in Spanish instead of English!

I walk by the street vendors with unwashed hands slicing food, the outstretched hands of beggars, and suddenly next door a delightful coffee shop like Starbucks with great treats. Contrasts in every way.  A burro now and then and a newly-renovated Textile Museum.

Two different days in Teotitlan.

This village, about 30 minutes by bus, fills my eyes with wonder at the natural process of traditional rug making and even the silk weaving. The entrepreneur in Mexico struggles, but it also is heart-warming to see the small hole-in-the-wall shops, instead of only the tourist shops.

Tiny ninas in crinoline practice their ballet, and teenagers are plugged in the same as home.Fashion is either mod or traditional, usually depending on age.  The amazing feat is  young women and the wearing of four inch heels on the cobblestone sidewalks. On the way to our most recent hotel, the large door to the casket displays catch our eye.  Lovers (often very young!) nuzzle and kiss openly under the large trees in the square.  Old people hold hands and mothers and daughters do too.  South of the border, life is more about relationships than time.  Buenos Dias is a given and Gracias is more than a perfunctory mumble.