Recently a dear friend of mine passed on a book to me entitled, Four Word Self Help, Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives. Don’t get me wrong. My life isn’t all that complex anymore, but this is a sweet book. I have chosen the four words: JUMP UP AND DOWN as my four words today.

Life has provided many opportunities for jumping up and down. I was a cheerleader in high school and did a fair amount of it. Don’t laugh. It was the only “sport” that girls were allowed back in my day. Title IX came long after I graduated from high school. Congratulations to all the girls and women who have been entitled to play sports since then. I’m jumping up and down for you.

It’s funny, but even as a 69 year old woman, I still jump for joy often. I’ve never stopped doing it and I highly recommend it to you. Let go! Show your happiness.

Here’s a photo of my 48 year old son and his 36 year old wife when they went on the whale shark trip in November last year with us. I didn’t ask them to jump up and down. They just did it.

 

Happiness is catching.

Makes you want to jump up and down, doesn’t it?

 

 

 

Each morning and each evening we are given the gifts of sunrise and sunset,

but they are especially full of nature’s song when you live by the ocean.

I greet each day with soft eyes, sometimes placing my hand on my heart. Sunrises will do that to me.

 

With each new day, we are offered a cessation of anxiety–if we take in the show.

Here is an offered gift from Nature telling us to be calm.

Moon set, early morning.

Sunrise means a pink sky and a pink ocean. How can you not be happy?

Lovely view from the beach to the mountains through the palms.

~~~

On the East Cape, Baja Sur, the sun rises over the ocean.

It’s hard to wrap my mind around that fact, as I’m originally from Southern California where the sun rises over the mountains.

But, it does indeed rise over the ocean on the East Cape.

It’s a glorious, full show of color with the morning birds looking for breakfast.

~~~

When the day leaves us,

I experience an overwhelming joy

that almost makes my heart ache as

I watch the sun fall into the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then there’s the green flash.

We see it all the time from our deck. We see it more as a green glow, but the photos below were caught with our GoPro.

It does, indeed, appear as a flash in these shots.

We had it set to shoot every five seconds.

~

 

These are from different days. A green flash? Believe.

 

 

 

Things I learned about the green flash:

• REFRACTION: the bending of rays of light in passing from one medium to another (e.g., air to water)
• Green flashes are by-products of the large varieties in astronomical refraction near the horizon.
• Green flashes occur because the atmosphere can cause the light from the sun to separate out into different colors.

 

 

 

In my Baja world,

join me as

I take a deep breath

and

savor the moments of sunrise and sunset.

 

 

“On June 6, 1995 the President of Mexico, Mr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León  declared the waters of Cabo Pulmo as a National Marine Park.”

“In a study by Octavio Aburto, a scientist at the Scripps Institute in San Diego, the biomass of sea life has increased over 460%,  [since making it a reserve] making the Cabo Pulmo National Park the most recovered marine reserve in the world.”

from Oceanhealthindex.org

 

play hard

smile big

laugh loud

but don’t take the rocks

(it’s a marine reserve…Cabo Pulmo in Baja California Sur)

bring the dog

a couple of sandwiches

some oranges and a soda or two

but don’t go taking the shells or the coral or the rocks home with you

from Cabo Pulmo, a marine reserve in Baja California Sur

Check it out:

http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans/most-successful-marine-reserve-cabo-pulmo-110812.htm

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2012/06/09/cabo-pulmo-national-marine-park-bajas-miracle-threatened/

http://www.cabopulmo.com/

 

 

 

 

“Fly! Fly higher!” Kathy yells to me. We are six and four; cute little girls, both of us with blond hair and blue eyes.

 

The water meter on the side of my house stood only about 20 inches off the ground, but to us it was so high that we were certain we could launch from it, flap our arm-wings and soar. After an hour, we tired of this game, and moved on to more excitement as we bragged to each other of our long and harrowing flights.

It is when thinking of my childhood in the days of bumble bees and watermelon that I am reminded of a time when water did not seem such a precious resource.

Sprinklers meant to water lawns would often go unattended while water spilled onto the street. This runoff became a swift, running river to us kids. Kathy and I would carefully choose blades of grass to serve as boats for a race.

 

 

As luck would have it, we had only a short walk up to the top of our street. Not much of an incline really, but good enough. “On your mark, get set, go!” We tossed our little blades of grass into the street’s river and watched as our boats maneuvered between the debris dotting the channels of water. When our little boats got stuck, the rule was to wait to the count of three before dislodging them, thus allowing the race to continue to our designated finish line. I don’t think we were extremely competitive, but I remember the taste of victory as being especially sweet. These childhood games were the stuff of our cheap thrills.

 

What happened to childhood innocence once we grew into mean, junior high school girls whose main concern was the latest gossip? The competition was hot and heavy in those days and the games were as different as the rules.

 

 

Whatever were we thinking when my girlfriend and I agreed to meet after school and play strip poker with three boys we barely knew? Were their any brain cells popping? Probably not.

Filled with fear and hard-driving adrenaline, mixed with very little poker skill, one item of clothing after another fell to the floor. Knowing that I would become the fodder for gossip scared me almost more than exposing my teeny, tiny breasts. More like bumps with nipples really. But for some reason I had difficulty rallying the courage to call an end to the game. What was I doing there?

My shoes came off. Next my socks, my skirt, my half-slip. My reputation would be next. My heart was trying to escape my chest. Enough. I just can’t do this. Game over.

 

Thank God those boys were not of a violent nature. They did not harass us girls to stay in the game. We retrieved our discarded clothing, wrapping them haphazardly so as to cover ourselves, and escaped to the bathroom to dress.

 

Calling an end to the game meant we avoided a danger as real as if we had fallen and narrowly escaped from a pit of alligators.

 

Truth be known, I think the boys were as relieved as we were to be finished with our game of strip poker, before it stripped us all of what little intelligence and common sense we could have possibly possessed as adolescents.

 

Sometimes life interrupts life.

Many experiences took away my energy for writing, but now I have a lot to write about and  I’m back. This summer my journey took me to places I’ve never been, and to places I used to be. It wasn’t all good. It wasn’t all bad. The woman I continue to become found unknown strength, but she disappointed herself sometimes too.

 

Somehow I have come to believe that the bottom line can never truly be the bottom line.

Conversely, the heights to which we aspire must never be reached, else we stop reaching.

 

Hula Girl on our trip home.

I’m glad to be home.

 

I’m glad to be writing again. Come back and join me?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take each day by the scruff of the neck, throw it to the winds, and make a splash! Whatever happens, happens.

As I learn and grow I realize that I can take on more of what life has to offer, and make it into more of what my dreams are made of.

Lately I’ve been asking myself, “Why not work on appreciating all that you have?”

It’s a good day? Great! It’s a bad day? Fix it. And if I’m blessed, there will be another day coming. One that has nothing in it yet. Think I should just make a splash!

 

I want to be better at making each day what I want it to be. Even when I have tasks that aren’t that much fun and can even be considered downright awful, there is more to any day I’m given to make into something better.

 

I’ll set aside some time for the not-so-fun stuff and give myself the rest of the day to experience joy–in whatever form that is for me. Reading? Doodling? Sewing? Camping? Walking on the beach with my dog? Body surfing? Making dinner to share with friends? Writing? Oh, and there is always napping!

 

I love my options.

 

 

Okay…let’s let the day begin. I’m alive, alert, awake, joyous, and enthusiastic about life!

All the photos are from 9 Palms on the East Cape, about a 3-hour drive from our home.

Life can certainly be good.

On some roads behind our house, Isabela and I take off for a morning walk. This time we are avoiding the beach because yesterday afternoon she had her flea and tick medicine applied. This means she can’t get wet for at least 24 hours.

As it turns out, a walk in the hills is just what we needed. Isabela loves to chase rabbits (conejos), and nothing I say can change her mind. What great control I have, huh? We encounter several of them this morning, and my pup is getting in lots of running.

 

 

The clouds are beautiful and the farmer’s fields are lush and green.

We encountered only one other person–a woman and her tiny dog–and all we heard was a little construction and lots of singing birds. Nice way to start the day for sure. We made a big loop and I got to see our house from on high.

 

 

We are truly blessed and enjoying our retirement. I’m lost in the fantasy of what I imagined it would be. Life is good.