A Very Small Change in Consciousness in Chacala

This was a very typical Chacala "stick" house
until just a few years ago.
And there are still some around town being lived in.
Mostly with blue tarps added.

Well, it looks like I have partially traded in my (too expensive in Mexico) magazine addiction for reading garden blogs online. By the hour. There are some really great ones, for anyone interested in gardening. Garden Voices has a new sample of posts everyday from a variety of different garden blogs. At the moment my favorites are La Gringa and Golden Gecko.

I was planning to go plant hunting at the tianguis (street market) in La Penita today. And someone even offered me a ride. But I counted my pesos last night, and I think I had better just focus on propagating my own plants for now.

I noticed I have been slowing down on how quickly I go thru the used English-books I get in PV. I got to the "Pagina in the Sun" used bookstore and delicious eating place with outside patio about twice a month now, but it used to be every week. I am reading less and visiting, going on-line and gardening and drawing more and more now. That's good. It's hard to find books I am glad I read when I finish them. They are mostly just dumb mysteries, etc.

I just glanced up at the big screened window here, because some movement caught my eye. It was a pretty big beetle-looking thing, about 3 or 4 inches across. At first I thought it was on the outside on the screen, and ignored it. But it was inside. It took me a minute to find the flyswatter. I have used books to kill bugs when I couldn't find anything else, but then I can't stand to touch the book cover. Even after I wash the bug guts off.

If I don't sweep the dead bug up, within about 20 minutes the any army will have come into the house and will dissecting it bite-by-bite. I have no clue how they know there is a new dead bug available for snacking on.

I have noticed I am undergoing a change of attitude on a small social issue. Or maybe not so small. Yesterday I did some errands in Chacala in the cooler, early morning, and then stayed around the house all day. I was expecting: Chicho with three sacks of dirt, the CFE to hook up the power, and a local friend to share some plants. Etc. And that Trini would call about some stuff. I wasn't really staying at home because I was expecting these people.

I didn't really need to be home for Chiccho or the CFE. They have already be paid and they didn't need to come in the house. And no one is offended here if your plans change and you have gone off somewhere. It's just not an issue. So I knew X wouldn't be annoyed if I wasn't here. Well, I wasn't sure if she would or not. She is a complicated woman, and I am just starting to get a feel for her complexity.

But anyway, I noticed a growing annoyance within me by the late afternoon, when none of these people had come by. And by then it was a pouring, roaring, crashing lightning storm. Too much lightning to be outside, visiting. So I was feeling kind of crummy. But really for no reason.

It appears to me that in Chacala it's fine to show, no show, come early, come late, whatever. I think people are more in the moment here, more attuned to the here-and-now, with very few plans made ahead of time. I like it this way. Life is much more fun. But I DO notice I have moments of wanting things to be just so. Schedules and meetings held to. Etc. No more.

It's hard to break the habit of trying to organize up your life and tighten things up so you can't just do what comes up. Making plans are all based on what you needed or wanted to do at sometime in the past. Firm plans kind of lock you in to whatever mattered to you yesterday. Sometimes you still care about the same things today as yesterday, but often you don't. At least I don't. Of course that's probably because my memory is getting worse.