My Own True Nature: Trouble in Paradise

Not really. Just enough drama to make life more interesting. It's been busy around Casa True for the past few weeks and nothing seemed to be blog worthy. Then I remembered that the whole purpose for my blog is to get to know myself better through the good and the bad and see what I learn from my experiences. The lessons have been rolling in this month. Could it be all the intention setting I did for the new year? Perhaps.
Most of our time has been devoted to working on the casitas. Both roofs are done which is a huge relief, but bring more projects to the table in a kind of domino effect. Mortar works needs to be done, ceilings are going in, and patching new holes are all on the list now. I have finally learned to avoid looking up and noticing the holes in the ceilings that were fixed once and now call to be repatched again. Lesson: Be patient and don't sweat the small stuff.
Realized after 2 group meetings, that the women's group I had attended really wasn't for me. These are beautiful and talented women, but not the focus I was looking for. I decided that I would allow serendipity to direct my move towards spiritual connection and found a new friend in a woman who was in an art class I took a while back. We made an immediate spiritual connection and spent a lovely afternoon creating art. Guess where she's from? CDA. Lesson: Pay attention. Everything you need is already there if you stay present in the moment.
Last week, our very nice neighbor, Larry, had a pipe come loose on his property. We let him know (as he's a late sleeper) and Dennis helped him to reconnect it and stop the water flow. That's what neighbor's do. The following day, we woke up to a small lake on the side of our house and we thought our pipes had also sprung a leak. Dennis spent the entire day digging up the ground, looking for the broken pipe and bailing buckets upon buckets of water in his search. After about 7 hours of digging and to his credit, minimal swearing, Larry called over the fence to suggest maybe it was run off from his leak the day before. Another 2 hours of filling in the hole, cleaning up the water and now mud mess, it turns out we did not have a broken pipe. Everything dried up. We didn't need to hire a bulldozer and dig beneath the house. Crisis averted. Needless to say, we were very grateful. Lesson: Don't be in a rush to think the worse. Look at the big picture. Positive Outcome? My garden is thoroughly aerated and will not need watering for quite a while.
Dennis and I celebrated our 24th anniversary last week. Neither of us remembered. I don't know if this is good or bad. We're busy with life and it just didn't come up. Every day is a wonderful day and I am grateful for my life with Dennis. It is never dull. When I got a nice email from our realtor wishing us a Happy Anniversary, we both had a good chuckle. To celebrate, we went to Mike's Global Grill for dinner and then topped it off with a gelato at the gelateria downtown. My tooth bothered me and I attributed it to the cold, but when it didn't go away, I quickly made an appointment with our dentist. $20 and 2xrays later, I found out I have to have a root canal. Oh no! Now I have to find a specialist to do the root canal. But wait! My dentist contacted the specialist who will come to her office and do it for me there. I didn't have to do anything. So now I'm taking antibiotics and a bit of non-narcotic pain medication until my appointment next week. Due to my knee replacement, I have to be on antibiotics for a while, before it's safe to have the root canal. Lesson: Medical and dental care here is cheap, good, and quick and doesn't give you the runaround going from office to office and a bunch of tests. I already knew that, but still, this was a good reminder.
Ok, that's the worst of it. The rest is all good.
Dennis has started doing yoga and has joined me on most mornings. He bought a yoga mat on our shopping trip to David last week, so I know he's serious. Well, as serious as he can be. I'm enjoying watching him slowly develop his own practice and hopefully, he will start to see the benefits.
Last week we spotted 2 men carrying an entire set of patio furniture on their backs. We flagged them over and after a bit of negotiating (in our friend's driveway) we bought some beautiful handmade furniture for our patio and loaded it up on the car. Everyone was happy. The 2 men especially, as they didn't have to carry it down the road into town to sell at the fair.
Our friend's B &B officially opened and we went to a lovely open house a few weeks ago. Their place is spectacular and really showcases the beauty of Boquete. If you're coming to visit, and don't want to sleep on my inflatable mattresses, you will definitely want to stay there.
The Coffee and Flower festival is slowly winding down. It's been going on for 10 days and tomorrow it will close up and the crowds of people will return to wherever they came from. Traffic is crazy. People everywhere and music plays throughout the night to about 3am, sometimes longer. We don't hear too much of it, as we are out of town a ways. Yesterday afternoon, we went to check it all out and had a great time. Lots of vendors, families, fair food, music, flowers, and chances to visit with friends. I met 3 ladies at the library, from Costa Rica, who bussed over to go to the fair. They are all teachers (English, Special Ed, and 1 principal) and we had a great chat on education. This is summer vacation for this part of the world. To add to the festivities of having the fair in town, there was a political rally going on for Presidential hopeful Navarro. I was able to take a picture as we made our way through the crowd on our way home.
"EVERY EXPERIENCE, NO MATTER HOW BAD IT SEEMS, HOLDS WITHIN IT A BLESSING OF SOME KIND. THE GOAL IS TO FIND IT." Buddha