Scenes from a walk

Just 35 days until we leave San Miguel. 

So much life. So much has happened.

Our son graduated prepa (high school) from the Instituto Sanmiguelense IB program, in Spanish, about a year ago. He spent a summer on his own, traveling in Oregon, visiting friends and family and working…and outrunning wildfires…all while taking care of university visa paperwork. We all traveled together through Europe for six months (futures posts on Turkey, Albania, Poland, and Czechia). And he is now well settled into Prague City University, finishing up his first semester. 

Pati and I are back in Mexico wrapping up our lives here, tying up loose ends, taking care of various paperwork, and transitioning our rental home to our friends who will take over our lease. 

All transitions are about letting go of the past and moving toward the next phase of whatever lies ahead. The bigger the transition, often the greater the sense of loss—and grief—that accompanies the change. 

Pati and I processed a lot of our grief last summer—an overwhelming time, indeed. We also celebrated. Still, being back in San Miguel as empty nesters without our son is difficult. So many reminders everywhere of where he was and things we’ve done together. 

But we video call about every week or so to catch up and stay in touch. He says he misses the people and the culture of Mexico. And we understand that. But he is being challenged with his new life and studies and is more than rising to the occasion. He has a small group of friends, most of whom we’ve met, who he seems to be simpatico with. Overall, he seems to be thriving in his new circumstances, so all a parent could hope for.

Meanwhile, it seems like a really good time to try to revive this blog, at least a little. I’m setting an ambitious goal of 30 posts, however small, over the next 30 days to try and document a little of this transition time, while sharing some of the tidbits of life and landscape in and around our home of the last ten years as I go on my (semi)daily walks.