My days are numbered
Why do we insist on putting a numerical value on everything? There are 60 seconds in a minute. 365.5 days in a year. When I'm traveling my days are numbered. I counted down to Costa Rica last August. I counted down to Denmark in March and April. Now I'm just counting (counting up, maybe?) We arrived back in Samara on Wed the 28th. That is Day 1. So today is Day 5.
Coming back to Samara is like deja vu all over again. Everything about it is so different. Not just the sights of the verdant green tropical landscape and towering trees and lush vegetation. Not just the feel that surrounds me with the warm and humid air that I love. Maybe also heightened by the fact that I can peel off all the layers and lounge in a bathing suit all day. Add to that the warm sand under my feet, and it's a far cry from the boots and long socks I was wearing in Denmark and Poland. Then it's also the way it sounds here. A few minutes on the back porch is like an hour of zen meditation with the different birds serenading me. I just heard a monkey calling in the background somewhere. What do they do? Call, hoot, holler? There is only one monkey here, and they definitely howl. Or else why would they have the name howler monkey, right? Everything smells so different here. I took the 5 minute walk into town, and I could smell many different things that I couldn't even describe. It reminded me of how sad I am that I'm not one of the animals that can smell with a lot more accuracy and detail. I imagine all the information I'm missing out on because of my inferior olfactory abilities.
Day 5 and it's not broiling hot like when we left in April. I don't have to hide from the heat all the time. I love it here. I can sit on the back porch and just relax for hours. I can listen to music from when I was a teenager in Canada in the 1980's. I can conjure up memories of being 16, and the vast stretch of time since I graduated in 1988 when I was 17. Then turn the music off and listen to the birds and dogs and monkeys and the neighbors chatting in Spanish. Then go to my Spanish lessons, and brush up on my accent. Then read my newest and most fascinating book called The Emotion Code by Dr. Nelson. Some books are good for entertainment, and some are the kind where you really learn something. I'm enjoying what I'm learning with this book. In fact, that may be my next blog. The hours pass by, and I am at a whole new level of Relaxed.
Yesterday was my 3rd long breakfast on the porch staring at the starfruit that need to be picked from the tree, and admiring the shell garden I started when I was here before. Catching up with my Mom on all the memories we made in Europe. The power went out for a while, which is ok if you like to crochet like me. I'm currently making a pastel green shawl that I will never use here in Costa Rica, but maybe it will be someone's Christmas gift this year. Then I went for a walk on the beach and met a new friend, so her and I walked all over. It was a perfect day for walking the beach, many cool rocks to find and add to my rock collection, good conversation, and it was cloudy so I didn't get fried from the sun.
We were talking about things like where to snorkel and where to hike and she kept asking me - how long did it take? How long did it take to swim out to that island over there? How long did it take to hike to that isolated beach you found? I felt pretty silly because I don't know. There is no reason to wear a watch here. If I'm lucky I can tell you when we left, and maybe when we got back. There is no clock on the back porch or even in my room. Time stands still here. There are so many things that more important than the time. I have so many minutes to spare now, it's a different way of thinking. The hours of the day matter for only 2 reasons. When is high tide and when is low tide? How much daylight do I have left, since the sun sets at 6:07pm today with a 45 minute variance throughout the entire year. Mostly I want to know when to go take pictures. I want to form a Sunset Club one day, I think. There is something very healing about the colors and the artistic presentation of Nature. It's like going to an art gallery every evening. I'm sure the sun comes up in a magnificent manner every morning too, but I've only been up that early a few times.
Between jet lag and the heat, everything seems to move in slow motion here. I feel like a time traveler. We spent months on the Central European time zone, then a few days on Greenwich Green time zone in London, then the Pacific time zone in Vancouver and California for almost a week, then a 5 hour layover in Miami in the Eastern time zone, and now in Central America Standard Time. Have you ever watched the Will Ferrell movie called Land of The Lost? It's a personal favorite. I feel like I've meddling with the Space/Time continuum. Especially since I'm here in the land of bugs (there was a bug on you, but it's gone now).
Then I had to get in my educational moment of the day, which does not include any quotes from that movie. I looked up space time continuum for dummies. Since it's actually a real thing, apparently.
Einstein's theory of special relativity created a fundamental link between space and time. The universe can be viewed as having three space dimensions — up/down, left/right, forward/backward — and one time dimension. This 4-dimensional space is referred to as the space-time continuum.
So now I know. I just have to figure out what to do with this great knowledge. I know what it says, but I'm still working on what it means. After all my travels though, I have a basis for trying to apply it to my own experiences.
Who decided time should be based on how many times our planet goes around the nearest star? I wasn't consulted, that's for sure. Time to end this blog before I start trying to write about the Purpose of Time.
Coming back to Samara is like deja vu all over again. Everything about it is so different. Not just the sights of the verdant green tropical landscape and towering trees and lush vegetation. Not just the feel that surrounds me with the warm and humid air that I love. Maybe also heightened by the fact that I can peel off all the layers and lounge in a bathing suit all day. Add to that the warm sand under my feet, and it's a far cry from the boots and long socks I was wearing in Denmark and Poland. Then it's also the way it sounds here. A few minutes on the back porch is like an hour of zen meditation with the different birds serenading me. I just heard a monkey calling in the background somewhere. What do they do? Call, hoot, holler? There is only one monkey here, and they definitely howl. Or else why would they have the name howler monkey, right? Everything smells so different here. I took the 5 minute walk into town, and I could smell many different things that I couldn't even describe. It reminded me of how sad I am that I'm not one of the animals that can smell with a lot more accuracy and detail. I imagine all the information I'm missing out on because of my inferior olfactory abilities.
Day 5 and it's not broiling hot like when we left in April. I don't have to hide from the heat all the time. I love it here. I can sit on the back porch and just relax for hours. I can listen to music from when I was a teenager in Canada in the 1980's. I can conjure up memories of being 16, and the vast stretch of time since I graduated in 1988 when I was 17. Then turn the music off and listen to the birds and dogs and monkeys and the neighbors chatting in Spanish. Then go to my Spanish lessons, and brush up on my accent. Then read my newest and most fascinating book called The Emotion Code by Dr. Nelson. Some books are good for entertainment, and some are the kind where you really learn something. I'm enjoying what I'm learning with this book. In fact, that may be my next blog. The hours pass by, and I am at a whole new level of Relaxed.
Yesterday was my 3rd long breakfast on the porch staring at the starfruit that need to be picked from the tree, and admiring the shell garden I started when I was here before. Catching up with my Mom on all the memories we made in Europe. The power went out for a while, which is ok if you like to crochet like me. I'm currently making a pastel green shawl that I will never use here in Costa Rica, but maybe it will be someone's Christmas gift this year. Then I went for a walk on the beach and met a new friend, so her and I walked all over. It was a perfect day for walking the beach, many cool rocks to find and add to my rock collection, good conversation, and it was cloudy so I didn't get fried from the sun.
We were talking about things like where to snorkel and where to hike and she kept asking me - how long did it take? How long did it take to swim out to that island over there? How long did it take to hike to that isolated beach you found? I felt pretty silly because I don't know. There is no reason to wear a watch here. If I'm lucky I can tell you when we left, and maybe when we got back. There is no clock on the back porch or even in my room. Time stands still here. There are so many things that more important than the time. I have so many minutes to spare now, it's a different way of thinking. The hours of the day matter for only 2 reasons. When is high tide and when is low tide? How much daylight do I have left, since the sun sets at 6:07pm today with a 45 minute variance throughout the entire year. Mostly I want to know when to go take pictures. I want to form a Sunset Club one day, I think. There is something very healing about the colors and the artistic presentation of Nature. It's like going to an art gallery every evening. I'm sure the sun comes up in a magnificent manner every morning too, but I've only been up that early a few times.
Between jet lag and the heat, everything seems to move in slow motion here. I feel like a time traveler. We spent months on the Central European time zone, then a few days on Greenwich Green time zone in London, then the Pacific time zone in Vancouver and California for almost a week, then a 5 hour layover in Miami in the Eastern time zone, and now in Central America Standard Time. Have you ever watched the Will Ferrell movie called Land of The Lost? It's a personal favorite. I feel like I've meddling with the Space/Time continuum. Especially since I'm here in the land of bugs (there was a bug on you, but it's gone now).
Then I had to get in my educational moment of the day, which does not include any quotes from that movie. I looked up space time continuum for dummies. Since it's actually a real thing, apparently.
Einstein's theory of special relativity created a fundamental link between space and time. The universe can be viewed as having three space dimensions — up/down, left/right, forward/backward — and one time dimension. This 4-dimensional space is referred to as the space-time continuum.
So now I know. I just have to figure out what to do with this great knowledge. I know what it says, but I'm still working on what it means. After all my travels though, I have a basis for trying to apply it to my own experiences.
Who decided time should be based on how many times our planet goes around the nearest star? I wasn't consulted, that's for sure. Time to end this blog before I start trying to write about the Purpose of Time.
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