velissima

Sometimes people tell me I am fearless. This is so far from the truth, but I have done things and been places that might make you think I am. We all fear different things. Staying still and settling in fills me with dread. Living in the same place having the same job the same neighbors and the same routine terrify me. But here I am now, living in the same city for 6 years, sedentary in the midst of the pandemic.

This blog used to be about letting go of the predictable and known, and going places — lots of places! And now, some years later, it will be about the settling down in one place. I had thought about how the world felt tentative, unstable and uncertain; like a game of musical chairs, and when the music stopped, you had better be where you want to be. And then, it stopped, at the beginning of 2020 quite literally for many places, and I had already, 3 years before, settled on Oaxaca de Juarez, in Southern Mexico. My wanderings halted. Not just in one city or one country, but in my house in my barrio. 2 1/2 years later, 2.5 years into the pandemic, I have traveled once, to the US. My traveling days may be over, so now this blog will be about the slow life in a small Mexican city in the far south of the country. And, of course, tales of other times. And discussions and reflections on our very strange new world.

I have lived in 9 countries and have traveled in 34 36 40. I’ve worked as a truck driver, a bartender, a candlemaker and a college professor. And a whole lot of other stuff along the way. Now I am retired and and my last real travel consisted of a year in South America, and landing in Oaxaca de Juarez, Mexico.

Here are my stories and observations.