COSAS PRECIOSAS – Images of Zihuatanejo

As our month here in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico draws to an end, we're full of mixed feelings. (I've shared some of them verbally in my previous post, The Price of Paradise.)

We'll miss the nearly overwhelming beauty of this place. Like the view from our villa out over Zihuatanejo Bay and a swath of the vast Pacific. We're a couple of blocks away from the beach, so, unlike the view from an oceanfront hi-rise, we see and hear and smell life going on in the foreground.

Still, those vistas, and those of the Sierra Madre del Sur behind us, are pretty much the long view. Those of you who know me—perhaps through my postings here at One Man's Wonder—know I tend to shy away from the long view.

I like to look for the little things: a detail of something bigger; the one member of the flock or school or swarm that's behaving differently; the shadow of something instead of the thing; something poignant or ironic; colors, shapes and patterns.

So here, in pictures, are a few such impressions of this year's stay in Zihuatanejo.

La Casa Anaranjada - The view at sunrise from Villas San Sebastian

Very Varied Berries - Fruit of an unknown shrub in La Ropa

Hot Tuna - A blushing, blooming nopal, Playa Madera

Stuck On You - "Gum tree" on the canal walk, near Plaza Kyoto

Blaze of Glory - Heliconia Psitacorum in La Noria

Foothold - Rhoeo (Tradescantia Spathacea), on cement wall, La Ropa

Dearly Departed - A poignant remembrance on Paseo del Pescador, Playa Madera

"We Liven Up Your Events"- Sign spotted atop a building in El Centro

Two Ways To Climb - Stairs with ficus just off of Playa Madera

Iguana Hold Your Hand - A resplendent five-foot-plus specimen seen in El Manglar

Old Man & the Sea - Jeff fulfills his dream of launching his own boat in Zihua

Abracadabra - A washed-up magic wand, Playa La Ropa

Yellow Streak - A rare rain brings out the colors of rocks along the Paseo in La Madera

Mutt & La Jefe - A black-and-white pup and her bodyguard along Rio Lerma canal

Anna By Heart - Grandkids sharing the fun at Paty's Marimar on La Ropa

Optimism - Typical Mexican construction, leaving re-bar for future new floors

See, Like This - Skipping stones in the canal outlet at Playa Principal

Los Colores - A lively mural brightens an alley at the south end of Playa La Ropa.

Banana Split - A banana tree stump, reminiscent of African Samburu & Sankara necklaces

Chickens Panicking...Too Late - Fresh pollo in a market on Av. Benito Juarez

What a Croc! - One of the three resident cocodrilos in El Manglar

Why, You Yellow-Bellied... - Great Kiskadee, also spotted in El Manglar

Study In Green - Limonada, the essence of refreshment, Zihuatanejo style

♫Hey-y-y, Macarela - Small fish, big thrill for rookie fisher Julie (w/Capt. Bernie)

Sombra Picada - A breezy afternoon on Pedro Acencio

Tequila Sunset - Adios to this incredible place till el sol comes 'round a few more times

HOW TO BE IN THE MOMENT – Tip #24

Find color in a white-gray winter's day.

PHOTO: SeasonalWisdom.com

Summer's colors are a feast; winter's, a tasting.

Savory shades of tenacious-oak-leaf brown. Sharp notes of dogwood-stem burgundy and chartreuse. These and a thousand 

other hues brave the cold, tempt the discerning palate.

 

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! – Make It Wonder-full!

These long summer holiday weekends, it's easy to lose sight of what the occasion's really all about. Sure, the Fourth is about fun. After all, it's a celebration, a cherished opportunity to spend a few of these long, languid days just being outdoors, having fun with people we love, and eating our way into a long nap in a hammock.

But the fourth is also a time for gratitude—an appreciation of living in this great, fiercely independent nation whose liberty was hard won two-and-a-half centuries ago. I try never to lose sight of this, even though that liberty is awfully easy to take for granted, since it's only rarely been challenged since—and even more rarely on our own soil.*

The Fourth of July also has come to represent a passage into summer, especially for those of us living in northern climes. (I think we can be fairly sure it won't snow now!) So let's be aware of all those little wonders that make this season such a blessing.

Here are just a few of the small wonders I plan to notice and appreciate as if I were experiencing them for the very first time:

• The way kernels of fresh sweet corn pop as my teeth plow through them
• The pulsing sizzle of a hot meadow teeming with life
• How my skin smells toasted in sunny, sultry air

 

• The pink crystalline coolness of watermelon chilled in the creek
• The misty echo up and down the river valley of a big aerial bomb's boom

• Water – that amazing clear, cool, flowing substance that both sustains and entertains

• A bluegill's arresting colors and texture and spiny dorsal fin
• The magical, winking syncopation of firefly glow with cricket chirp
• The sweet, evocative smell of freshly mown grass
• The faces of my grandchildren as they too experience wonder

 

What little wonders will you be 
ready to embrace this Fourth of 
July weekend?





* It saddens me to note the deeply troubling undercurrent to this year's otherwise joyous celebration of Independence Day. Never in my long life have I been as deeply concerned about the state of my country. 
We've elected a shallow, narcissistic, willfully ignorant reality-show host as president. His yes-men appointees, as well as majorities in both houses of Congress seem hell-bent on turning the nation's back on our responsibilities—not just to the rest of the world, but to the poorest, most vulnerable of our own countrymen. In six months we've become the laughing stock of the world.
Instead of America's trademark optimism, drive and inspired leadership, we're retreating into a cowardly shell of fear, enabling shameless opportunism by a visionless, doom-and-gloom ruling oligarchy. 
It is nothing less than an assault on our country's founding principles and on much of the hard-won cultural evolution we've achieved during my lifetime. 

 

BETCHA CAN'T FIND… – A Simple Game of Observation

Starting when my kids were about three and four years old, they'd spend their summers with me. I did my best to keep them busy learning and having fun. While I worked, they were in summer art programs, at day camp or with friends whose parents were around during the day. Evenings and weekends we also had lots of fun, but sometimes we’d find ourselves with some time to kill—sitting at the laundromat, on long trips in the car, or waiting for Grandma.

 

To make the best of that time, we invented a simple game of observation. It usually works best outdoors, but it can be fun indoors too. The more varied and cluttered the view, the better. I don’t think we ever named it, but, after playing it once, all I had to do to declare the game underway was to say “I’ll bet you…can’t…find a…," and fill in the blank with the name of any object I knew we could all see. I’d always say the words very slowly, sort of dramatically, which became their cue to dial up their sharpest eyes.

 In order to challenge them for more than a few seconds, I had to find more and more minute details.

Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, at first it was. But my kids proved so good at it that, in order to challenge them for more than a few seconds, I had to find more and more minute details or things that were visible only intermittently (like a waving flag that showed between two buildings only when billowed by the wind).
Since the object was for one sibling to find the object before the other, it became an exercise very much like speed reading—scanning a visual “lexicon” for that one key “word.”

...it takes a little time, which, after all...is the greatest gift we can give our loved ones…and ourselves.

Like anything so wonderfully simple, I’m sure this game wasn’t our exclusive invention. There could be any number of variations; any format will do. The key is to use one’s sight like a laser to cut through the flashy, loud, obnoxious foreground layer that so often clambers for our attention, and see some of the other layers of rich detail life lavishes on us.

The beauty of Bet You Can’t Find… is that the only equipment you need is your eyes, something those of us lucky enough to have good vision take with us wherever we go. And, of course, it takes a little time, which, after all—one of the main points of One Man's Wonder—is the greatest gift we can give our loved ones…and ourselves.