My Writer's Odyssey in Mexico: Balancing Creativity and Daily Life | Day 304 of my 2023 Journal

The context is always important!

I keep trying to include in my daily journal-sharing routine that something has changed. After we arrived in Mexico, I re-opened a project of great importance to me. I am writing a book with a soul brother I met early in life. We started the project in early summer in Copenhagen, when he was just back from India, and I was in town for a week.

The idea hit us like a bolt of lightning, a fountain of inspiration streaming upwards and onwards - the kind of idea you instantly KNOW to be right.
I have no idea where it is taking us. It is a wild adventure into the unknown, a land of learning, growing, exploring, and thinking - and I am happy to do it with a friend.

The downside is this project now absorbs quite a lot of my writing power, and I find it harder to reach the level of reflection and inspiration needed for my daily update. I am sorry about that.

Or am I?

I do trust the process. I do trust life as it is. Just look at the picture above text. A world with such immense beauty is hard not to trust.

And so I could share now a story about researching the different online European standard high school options for my unschooled children or about running circles with my teen son at the sports court across the street. I could talk about walking to the market with my husband, about the beautiful music we heard there, and the iguana hanging out on the sidewalk on our way back.

I could also go down the rabbit hole of Halloween, a tradition not innate to my culture, unfolding at Quinta - the tourist street - with candy and trick and treat and people dressed up in scary costumes, with a slight mix of Mexico to be found in the rare Catrina here and there.

If I did, I would also talk about the dressing up of dogs, which I did find hilarious, and the discussion of how to cope with beggars in the streets (how to cope with privilege). About having tea at the vegan cafe and watching Pirates of The Caribbean 3 on the aforementioned sofa before playing basketball late at night.

And somehow, I did while trying not to while trying to see a pattern to reflect upon - and the only interesting element I see here is the peace growing in us, the way our restlessness meets its match here in the context of staying in a slow touristy place by the beach.

The context is always important, I wrote while opening the book's second chapter.

Whatever journey we are on, the context will always work as a house of mirrors, a puzzle to sort out, a way for new insights to arise from odd angles and new contrasts: How does all this work together, and why does it happen simultaneously?

These are good questions to ask, and often, we will simply take one or two elements and see how they look when they work as each others’ mirrors.

So, let's line it up:

1. I am writing a book on finding balance in life
2. We are in a completely new culture
3. We are in a very touristy version of a completely new culture
4. First time for real backpacking
5. Frida Kahlo theme
6. Lime, cilantro, and chili
7. The health project is ongoing
8. Poverty contrasting our privilege
9. The teenagers' education
10. Living “alone” with just the five of us

Oh - there were already many things going on, underlining that I can not list it all. ALL factors are too many factors. What grows clearly from this exercise is how meditation is the key to finding any relevant focus; as a Jedi said yesterday in the series I am watching with my youngest: "Only when your eyes are closed can you truly see."

How the colors lime and hibiscus rhyme with writing a book on a rooftop, how tropical downpours are talking to my health project, how my teens’ education becomes almost an obligation contrasted by the poverty we are surrounded with, how being a big family suddenly becomes a theme again, and how overwhelmingly little we have felt the confinement of the backpack, not needing anything more than we have - except time, focus, strength, knowledge. Close your eyes to find your way, and fill your mental backpack to ensure you always have what you need. Then open your eyes and let your gaze rest on the beauty. While smiling, feet in the sand.

So, here it was. The insight of the day. Exclusively, or at least firstly, in the journal. A long version. Again.

With love

Cecilie Conrad

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our lives like this, and we get very happy when we get your feedback. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

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