Get Out of your Comfort Zone in Service of Pleasure

Feb 01, 2017

Get Out of your Comfort Zone in Service of Pleasure

I arrived last week in Oaxaca Mexico.  I was tired after working the weekend before leaving, then the flight, but it all went smoothly and I was warmly greeted by my airbnb host Laura, when I arrived.  Its so good to be in the warmth.  This morning I noticed the locals always walk on the shady side of the street, and I will too, once my bones warm up!

It was probably my weariness and that I don’t really love the flying part, but as I passed the day from one airport to the next, I mused about “why do I do this?” Leave the comfort of my own home, shlepp 1000s of miles, in herds of people, to be in the discomfort of navigating another language, culture, the shock to the system of different temperatures and strange amoeba - for what purpose? 

But even in my groggy state this a.m. as I walk, I remembered how much I like all that disruption, and will like it more as I acclimatize and get my traveling legs.  Traveling gives me new perspectives that I want to have. 

It always takes me 2-3 days to fully land.  I’ve come to accept this as part of the journey.  I feel disorientated, a bit wobbly (have to walk slow here the first days due to the very uneven, broken sidewalks), a bit out of sorts and the busy, noisy sometimes congested streets are grating to my nervous system.  I use slow exposure to it all, which helps.  But then as the days pass and I get rested, I know it will be fine.  I reserve all opinions about anything until that happens! 

So today consisted of very little - get up and have breakfast with my host and begin the practice of getting my ear attuned to Spanish.  As well as an airbnb host she teaches at a language school when there are students.  So she speaks slowly and is very persistent in only speaking Spanish.  I spent a few months at a language school here in 2009 and my Spanish is “not bad” once my ears and tongue get attuned again.  She also uses her tablet with a translation program, which is very helpful.  I’m not sure we had those yet back in 2009.

Then I ventured out to walk and to get orientated to where I’m staying.  Many places had posters advertising cultural events and classes in the coming month.  I took pictures of them on my phone to digest later. 

I left reserving a place to stay a bit late, so I’m not staying in the part of the city I am most familiar with, or like best.  I’m in a working class neighborhood in the central area.  It’s fine, but a bit busy and doesn’t have the lovely parks to sit in during the day or I’ve not found them yet.  However to its credit, the large market is just down the street and I can go there for very cheap and delicious, local food.  I may seek other lodging as the spirit moves me, now that I’m on the ground here.  But my host is very nice and helpful and that may be the deciding factor.  Already we have had beginning conversations, in broken Spanish, about death, poetry, the challenges of family and relationships, and spirituality.  Do you think I’m in the right place?

A couple of hours was enough and I headed back to the bnb to rest - slept most of the afternoon and then ventured into the market area in the late afternoon in search of sustenance.  I wandered the market and decided to skip it as far as food went, as it was late in the day, and they have no refrigeration, so the food looked a bit tired.  I opted for a local fish restaurant just on the corner of my street, where people were lined up to get in - always a good sign - and had a satisfying meal. 

They have a drink here I really enjoy - jimaica - cold tea make from hibiscus flower - gorgeous red color and subtle flavour, not sweet or sour but somewhere in between.  Its so refreshing on a hot day. 

My host Laura asked me what I planned to do while here and I said - walk, write, do some work in between visiting art galleries, the ethno-botanical gardens - beautiful to wander in, and wander the markets here and in the pueblos out of the city.  My daughter will join me for a bit, and then we’ll do some more serious adventuring out of the city.  There’s an area called the cloud forest for hiking up in the hills beyond the city. 

The site below as I arrived last night at dusk, was lovely.  Mountains rising all round the valley in which the city rests, a maze of roads spiraling out and up from the city where clusters of small pueblos dot the landscape and people still live in quite primitive conditions.  If it were later and darker into the night, we would have been able to see the outdoor fires that are beacons in the night from those villages. 

Fragments of this poem kept flitting through my mind today - Sweet Darkness - by Welsh poet David Whyte  

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone,
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your home
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

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