Mexico Morning…
The nights in the Baja are crazy cold. It wouldn’t even feel like you are this far south, until you remember, “Oh yeah, it’s January, so I should just suck it up and be glad there is no snow!”. The nights are quiet, and in our little house that currently has a population of 21 people coming and going, it stays surprisingly quiet for a good chunk of time. But the mornings…the mornings are something totally different to my other world that I normally occupy.
Vaden and I live in a condo in downtown Hamilton. We live on a busy street, but our world is often insulated from a lot of sounds early in the morning, except for maybe the odd siren or screeching tire. To the hundreds of people who stay with us throughout the year, it may seem noisy if they are unused to city life, but to us it is just background noise, that is actually almost soothing and familiar to us at times. And when you are used to one way of doing things, when you encounter another side of life, it can open up your senses in a whole new way. Right now, it is morning in Zapata, Mexico, and the birds are singing outside my window, the 700 dogs that seem to hang out and dare the vehicles to play chicken with them are also barking at each other and anything that moves. There are motorbikes that go ripping by, and I can hear this crazy rooster (that is clearly trying to impress the world with his manhood) from a couple blocks away from here, and I even listened in on a conversation in Spanish happening in the next lot over from our house…Not to mention what is currently happening underneath this roof! There are 10 people waiting for showers, three little boys getting in trouble outside my door for something they know they aren’t supposed to be doing, and the slow steady chewing, that I am sure I could hear if I tried hard enough, of termites trying to convince us that this is really not the best place to set up shop. Oh….and there goes the rooster again!! Life here can seem worlds away from my condo in Hamilton, yet so much is the same.
We are here because we came down to see the Hero Holiday staff and the School of Leadership Students who are down here until the end of May. We wanted to have a weekend with them and get a chance to see what has happened here since last time we were down. We met the families that have new houses, some that are hoping for help, and we have played poker, gone dirt biking and 4 X 4ing in crazy amounts of mud…all because we are a part of something that is bigger than all of us. We are a family, though only a few of us share the same bloodline. We are connected by a common goal, and a common love for each other and what we hope to accomplish. That doesn’t change when I leave here tomorrow, and get on the plane and touch back down in Hamilton again. Two days from now, I will be in my condo, and wake up to sirens and a cranky cat. However, the vision in my heart is still the same, and my love for what I do is still the same, because we can choose to be whoever we want to be, wherever we are. The only limits on our lives are us, and the only one who can push those limits are the people who put them there. This is the gift and the burden of being born where we are: we need to choose to look past what is familiar and comfortable and be willing to find out what part we can play in making a difference…
As for me, I could live anywhere. Everywhere I visit, I always say I could live there. But for now, I know that I can do the most where I am and I can influence the most in what I am doing. Life is a gift, and the most exciting part is that we get to open this gift every morning and use it to the fullest every day. Is there anything better? According to the rooster that is wanting to add his two cents right now as I type this, I don’t think so!