Thursday, March 10, 2011 — I'm back and I'm fine

OK, I'm truly sorry to have caused some concern. Candor needed to take a little vacation. But I really appreciate the emails asking about me and checking in. You know who you are and I love and appreciate each of you.

The biggest problem with staying away this long is the question of how to take up where I left off. The beautiful days in and around Oaxaca continue to run through my mind. The cultural richness of Mexico City still amazes me. I actually took it pretty easy for the last couple of days because I had a relapse of the cold that ran through our group. In Oaxaca I developed the first case of laryngitis that I've had in maybe thirty or forty years. I can practically never remember having had a case like this where my voice disappeared one hundred percent. The Oaxaca locals seemed to all chalk it up to dry air and climate change. When I got back to El Tuito I also took it easy and had my voice back to almost normal in just a day. I think we all have our places that agree with our bodies more than others. I'm home in Fort Bragg now and feeling great. I started my swimming regime again on Monday and have been feeling better each day. I must say though, that my back and legs feel stronger as a result of all the walking I did in Oaxaca.

While we were back in Mexico City I took it easy and availed myself of the most fabulous chicken broth based soup. It was a vegetable and chicken tortilla soup with a name I can't reproduce and with strips of Tortilla on the top. It was laced with avocado and other goodies and I sprinkled generous helpings of cayenne on it. Just what the doctor ordered. I think that's all I had for lunch and dinner those last several days.

Yael, Jean Pierre and I took the all night bus back from Mexico City to Puerto Vallarta via a midnight stop in Guadalajara. I must have snoozed for a bit after that stop because I woke up again high in the mountains on the road back to Vallarta. I was suddenly startled to feel that we were careening down a steep hill and going around curves as if we were in a little sports car instead of a big heavy bus. It didn't take long for me to figure out that, yes, we were driving incredibly fast down and around precipitous curves, all accentuated by the yellow with black v's lining at the edges of them to warn any sane driver to slow down and take it easy. I don't think I have ever been so frightened in my life. I found myself gasping at every turn. There were only a few people left on the bus and they seemed to be sleeping. JP said we made the trip in shorter than record time. I soon became convinced that there was no way we would live through this last several hours. You could see thousands of feet down these drop offs to the bottom where the sea lay and where there might be a chance to survive. That driver had to have been on something stronger than Dexedrine. The contrast between him and the man who drove us to Mexico City was like night and day. The first driver slowed down while we drove through the lovely snow even though it wasn't on the actual roadway, so he must have been being cautious preparing for any ice that he might encounter. Well, there was no snow coming back but I wished with all my heart that we'd had that earlier driver. As you can plainly tell, however, I am here, healthy and oh, so happy to be alive.

I had a nice visit with the Larochettes the night before I left. Yael served me a cup of Tim's tea with the earthy aroma and we watched an interview conducted by Piers Morgan on CNN. The next day I was scheduled to be driven by Elias to the Vallarta airport at 1:00. Yael and JP prepared a delicious chicken barbeque before I left. It was a lovely sendoff. On my trip down the river with Elias I asked him about growing napales. I had begun to wonder if it would be a good idea to nip off the flowers that produce the fruit if you are trying to produce the small leaves that are so tender in salads and veggie dishes. Elias said that was exactly what one should do. So I'm going to give it a try with my own south facing cacti here in Fort Bragg. You just never know.

As I believe I stated in an earlier entry, Jean Pierre and Yael have announced that they are going to take a break from holding the retreats which they have done for the last nine years. So much has happened in these years and some warm and lasting friendships have been formed. I know we all feel incredibly grateful to Jean Pierre and Yael for everything that they have shared with us over these years. I'm sure it is time for them to have a rest from the workshops and be able to begin to develop the next phase of their lives. I know they will create wondrous artwork when they have more time to call their own. We participants will also be following our bliss and staying in close contact with each other. Time moves on.