The Legendary Journal of Things We Nearly Forgot to Say: written on the back of a letter never sent

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

written on the back of a letter never sent

(There are ancient towns

thriving on truly

spiritual ingenuity hidden

everywhere you smile)

Believe in the architecture of your own dreams

(This supports that and vice-versa)

Believe in dancing

Believe in the mad and holy and unholdable night

(The wind in your teeth/bare knuckles finely frozen)

Finally

believe in everything

or nothing at all

but do believe in dancing.

Alphabetical List of Favorite Things I have Seen and Done in Mexico So Far

From a hotel cantina terrace on the Palenque zocalo, I watched a little boy of maybe 8 as he mixed reading time with sliding down the stone bannister time. (See related video)
I helped change the bus tire, which flattened a mere half hour after we spent two hours on the side of the scalding jungle road, brokedown, in Chiapas. I told the driver it was "muy divertido," as I loosened, then tightened the bolts, and an old man intermittently slung glugs of water to lubricate them, and they both laughed at my enthusiasm.
I hiked out to the southernmost tip of Oaxaca and watched the sun set with a new friend from halfway across the world. Sometimes we talked, and sometimes we didn't, and there was every color, ever.
I rode for 6 hours through the jungle (Chiapas) in the back of a pickup truck atop a mountain of coffee beans. Every few miles we would bounce through another village, and little kids would smile and laugh and wave at me from the side of the dirt road.
I rode on a boat in the ocean and almost got sick, but then I didn't. I tried to snorkel, but got scared. I decided to get comfortable with swimming in the ocean and did, kind of, by going swimming every day at Playa Mazunte.
I went off in to the jungle while visiting the remains of the ancient city Lakam Ha (Palenque) and meditated on little pools of water where tiny black fish swam and snails lunged among many-colored rocks.
I wept and wept, alone in Ejido Emiliano Zapata, as I wrote my dear friend a letter.
Upon arriving at Laguna Miramar, the most remote lake in all of Mexico, where motor boats are not allowed, and one must hike 5 miles to reach the immaculate shore, I boarded a canoe and explored different jungle locales with a guide named Jose, such as a viewpoint named Mirador, where the remains of Mayan homes dwindle away in the shrubbery, and an ancient stone relief 40 feet up a 70 foot stone wall. The relief resembling, quite a bit, a meditating buddha.

The Legendary Journal of Things We Nearly Forgot to Say

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

written on the back of a letter never sent

Alphabetical List of Favorite Things I have Seen and Done in Mexico So Far

What Happened Before

I bet you're sorry you never asked.