Full Circle

Well, we are back where we started. We have moved out of our little house that served us so well in Barrio Mercedes and moved back in to Poco Cielo (the little resort whose name means “A little piece of heaven”). The owners, who are from Calgary, are back in Canada for 6 weeks, so we are watching the place for them. It’s awesome, and we love the place. Now that I am officially out of a job, I am wondering how to work “Innkeeper” into my resume and make it work for me.

It’s so hard to believe that we have been here for 9 months already, and that we have to return to life in Canada in only two short months. I need to look for a job, and be a responsible adult again. Sigh.

Coming to live in a completely different culture has been such a great experience for my family and I that it’s difficult to put into words what it has meant to us so far. Has it changed us in any profound ways? Do we look at people or things any differently than we used to? I guess I don’t really have the answers to those questions yet, and I think it will take me a long time to put all this in proper perspective.

I can say this. Taking a year off from the Rat-Race in order to look for a new perspective and enjoy a different lifestyle/culture has been immensely rewarding for me, and I recommend it to everyone.

For example, we moved to a small town in Costa Rica that simply does not have any traffic issues. I have not been stuck in big-city traffic for 9 months (except for our trips into San Jose.) There are rarely any line ups either (with the notable exception of the bank – but I welcome those line ups because the bank is air-conditioned and they always have the Discovery channel showing some cool show.) When I had to return to Canada for my Mom’s funeral, I was rushing around like crazy trying to deal with all the arrangements and I was thrust right back into traffic jams, line-ups, voicemail, etc. I was quite surprised at how stressed I got in such a short amount of time. Simply being away from all of that has just got to be good for your soul.

Another example that’s been positive for me is that the level of commercialism here is much lower than in North America. Take the holidays for example - in North America Halloween, Easter, Valentines Day, etc. are advertised to the hilt for weeks before, and there is pressure to buy, buy, buy - food, presents, costumes etc. Here, there is no such thing as Halloween, Valentines Day is almost non-existent and Easter is simply a religious holiday with virtually no commercial aspect to it at all. Holidays and celebrations here focus on gathering with family and friends to enjoy food and each other’s company – just the way it should be.

Yet another area that I think helped to reduce stress in our lives was a little surprising to me. We were completely without television for the first 6 months we were here, and even when we did get it, we couldn’t watch the news because we couldn’t understand it. So, NOT watching the news meant we were not constantly bombarded with negative stuff. Hmmmm. For example, I was vaguely aware of the H1N1 story in Canada from the internet, but here I heard absolutely zero. So, while Canada was stressing out for weeks over what seemed to be arguably a non-event, I hardly gave it a second thought. I think I win. Now I’m definitely not saying that we should avoid all bad news in our lives, I’m just suggesting that I think the news channels need and use drama to “sell” their wares. How much of it is puffed up a little?

I guess the whole point is that we have been able to live our lives with a whole lot LESS stress than we were used to in Canada, and it has been great. I can’t imagine how anybody would not benefit by living (if only temporarily) a more stress-free life, and that’s why I recommend it. Figure out what your Costa Rica is, and do it! And do it sooner rather than later. How many of us know young, healthy, hard working, responsible people who have come down with cancer or some other illness that would prevent them from ever doing something like this. Or, how many people do you know of who denied themselves a lot of life’s little pleasures so they could save up for retirement, only to to get sick or frail, or even die just after retirement age hits.

Of course I know that we were very fortunate that if was feasible for us to do this at this point and time, but I think many people might be surprised what THEY could do if they really put their mind to it. But it also comes down to priorities and how tolerant people are of breaking out of their regular life routine, so it’s obviously not for everyone. I can only say that if you’ve ever considered changing it up a little or going on a little adventure, then don’t put it off - there’s no time like the present!