Simplicity
This blog has been silent since sometime before the U.S. election. What can we add to the flurry of news and commentary, words and images?
Every year, the Escuela de los Amigos de Monteverde selects a theme. This year the theme is Sencillez, or Simplicity.
“Buscamos enfocar nuestras vidas en lo que nos sostiene, tanto físicamente como espiritualmente, evitando los excesos que puedan poner en peligro nuestro equilibrio.”
“We try to focus our lives on what sustains us, physically and spiritually, avoiding excesses that may endanger our balance.”
What does simplicity mean to us this year? We’re exploring it with each of our senses.
Tasting milk fresh from Benito’s cows and goats, eggs from Nubia’s chickens, tamales from the school fundraiser, and fresh-ground peanut butter.
Wondering why this corner of our driveway always smells kind of like watermelon.
Marveling at a distant childhood memory stirred by the combination of orange and grey mosses on this post: Jennie recalls a fuzzy animal embossed on a card, its details lost to time.
Listening to the noisy wildness of a morning walk…
And spotting the abundance of mushrooms that sprang up with the night’s rain.
Spinning on a playground structure ingeniously built from old tires…
… and climbing on a tree that has known generations (of kids and bugs and beetles).
Not having many evening diversions, but plenty of crickets and some very talented local musicians.
Appreciating the absence of advertisement. Here, what ads exist are faded by the forest…
…or less apparent than a nearby mural.
The beauty of a butterfly, or a new bug.
Celebrating holidays with a simply-decorated “tree”…
… and family and birthday cake.
Appreciating a government that abolished its army and turned the barracks into a children’s museum.
Venturing down a new path, uncertain where it will lead.
