Watch What You Wish For

When I was working in an office, I used to say, “I wish I could just work outside all day”.  Well not only will I be working outside all day, I basically LIVE outside all day.  I sit outside, I eat outside, I read outside, I work on my computer outside.  I can hear the waves crashing at the beach when I’m ….. outside. The list goes on and on.

I can kind of say I sleep outside because my house is an open air structure. Basically I DO sleep outside, but I am behind a door.  I can smell food cooking, people smoking and I can hear them laughing and talking. I have no climate control.  When it rains everything gets moist including my sheets, my clothes and my books.  The covers on my books are curling up, the picture I have hanging in my room folds over and if I don’t dry my laundry in the sun my clothes start to smell bad.

I have to secure my food in a large bin or in the refrigerator so the ants or other critters don’t get to it.  I have to eat fast or the ants will think it belongs to them.  I’ve almost gotten used to having them in my drinks, but so far, I try to fish them out.  Eventually I will just see them as protein.

I am sitting in the dark (well, with a light on above me) in front of my computer…outside.  I am watching Curb Your Enthusiasm on my laptop…thank god I took the time to copy some DVD’s to my hard drive.  I actually don’t miss TV or the phone, but when I hear myself laughing out loud at this episode, I wonder who can hear me.

I don’t feel vulnerable, although maybe I should.  I try to recognize strange noises.  I heard something BIG this morning while I was in bed, but realized it was a banana leaf falling on my roof.  I take my mace to the bathroom with me, since I have to open my door and enter another…OUTSIDE.  Don’t worry, mom…I’m ok.  Really. I always trust my gut instinct because I think it really does tell you when something is wrong.  So far, nothing has set off that internal alarm within me.  But I will heed that calling when, and if, it presents itself.  I feel better having multiple weapons of choice beside me and confident that I know how to use them.

I like being in tune with nature.  For some reason there are hardly any bugs out tonight, even around the light.  I don’t know why.  Maybe because it rained all day?  I can’t see the moon and from my experience in the Amazon, that’s when ALL the bugs came out.  I don’t understand the tides yet so I find myself at the beach with my sand iguana almost being washed away after I’ve worked on it for 30 minutes.  Thankfully tonight is cooler than it was last night.  But still, I persevere.

I am still alive regardless of how uncomfortable I am.  I have a refrigerator full of food and things to drink.  I have a bed to sleep in and a hot shower.  I am more fortunate than most so I can’t complain at ALL.  I really haven’t had much of an adjustment problem.  Maybe it’s because I’ve lived like this when I vacation, so it’s not a huge surprise to me.  My transition was quite natural and very little stress ensued.

So overall, the moments of discomfort are overshadowed by the fact that I can walk to the beach at any time.  Or that a strange looking bird enters my yard.  Or that I can look up at a tree that I’m walking under and see tiny looking toucans doing their thing.  Hearing howler monkeys in the morning and evening make it all worthwhile.  People here take it for granted and probably wonder why I’m so curious about ‘nothing’.  This is a wonderful, magical place and I swear, I will never regret a single decision I made to live here.