ON THE STREET WHERE I LIVE: I am full of life this morning and it´s time to go walking with the dogs and dodge the cows, goats, chickens and the horses pulling loaded carts on the Calle Real

The Birds are chirping, the dogs are leaping and so am I.  Tomorrow I´ll be 69 years old but for today I think I´ll go visit a orchid finca for the first time...it´s not far beyond the town.

I live in a rural pueblo in the Departmento de Sacatepequez in Guatemala, Central America.  I´ve lived in Guatemala two times in my life and this time I´m retired and have more time to take in the beauty of life around me. 

This morning David, the massuse, came to give me my weekly massage.  He told me that I´m holding together very well and my muscles are strong, my flexibility fantastic, I´m looking good but I best lower my weight in order to remain fit and healthy. 

Que?  Weight?  Denial is a not-so-friendly friend of mine.  Denial and pretend have always been tricky factors when I attempt to take a thorough self-inventory on the subject of weight-gain, self-will running riot, self-centeredness, emotional stress, addictions or anything else.  It seems if I really want to do anything about any shortcomings or overplumping I must face my own reality(ies) straight on!  Life in the REAL? Hark!

I belong to a ¨anonymous¨ fellowship.  I have belonged to this same ¨anonymous¨ fellowship for 33 and 1-2 years and haven´t had a drink of alcohol in all that time.  The results of being part of a fellowship that strongly suggests ¨rigorous honesty¨ from me is that being ¨self-honest¨ has become a priority in my daily life.  Well, mostly it has.  Self-honesty can be a little tricky.  Sure, it helps me identify shortcomings and admit my own wrongs but it also allows me to see some remarkable and good changes in me and how I interact with YOU.  Some times I´m content to simply pass the time away painting or reading all the brilliant stuff, from you, my blogger friends, on the web and I don´t do all the other things that are good for me. Laziness? Sloth? Procrastination?

Once I start keeping my eye´s wide open and focused strongly on me I also notice that I could see all of YOU better too.  Becoming more keenly aware of me and my interactions with you has allowed me a new freedom and emotional balance that I´d never known before.  I become more personally accountable.  I get to be the authentic me and I´m able to accept my shortcoming more easily because I know they will most often ¨slip away¨ after being dealt with, exposed to REALITY and hung out to dry and not left to rot in the back of my mind that sometimes is far too lazy for an active person like me.

It´s almost magical what self-truth is capable of doing when fully operating within the more authentic and ¨open/exposed¨  self-truer version of me.  Acceptance of myself, and often you too, has allowed me to walk through difficult times such as financial insecurity, sickness, lonliness and even bereavement with ¨courage and serenity¨ and emerge quite soundly.   

Thanks be to God and to all of you who have helped me find my way again today.,,you are a gift to me and I appreciate YOU.

Leonardo Ricardo
Guatemala
Central America