Feliz año nuevo!!

Gelukkig nieuwjaar for all of you!!!!!

With my best wishes I send you some of the energy from the magic places I am staying.
Or does magic not depend of the places we are in, but becomes visible when you allow to look at life with the eyes of a child again?
When you sit down, leave all the stress, work, craziness and worries of our modern world behind and take the time to look at a tree, to feel the wind, sun and rain on your face.
To look at the person next to you, seeing the beauty that hides in every line of his face. Taking the time to sit with them in silence or talk. To feel again that we are all born from the same earth.
Maybe that is why I feel so happy and fortunate to live here for a while, to spend time in the communities. It is a cliche for sure, but like all cliches very true. Among these people, that live a harsh but tranquil life on the land, it is easier to apreciate again the beauty that is in the simplicity of life.
In the Netherlands, I enjoy highly intellectual talks on philosphy, science and politics. I apreciate that everything functions so well (in Guatemala the banks closed down for a week and many were unable to buy their Christmas meals and gifts) and is so neatly planned and that corruption is minimised (in comparison..). That is great - without cynism nor sarcasm- because we reach a lot, we are able to move mountains or more literally the sea. And even though we treat immigrants horribly, in general people are not dying from hunger or without medical aid, there is no waste everywhere in the streets...
We Dutch have the gift of rationality and a very firm work ethos and we should be proud that we manage to live together with so many on such a small space in such a small country.

But how I often miss, what I find here. Time, tranquility and space to express, experience, live through and enjoy our feelings. All our feelings, not just some of them and at the times that it suits. To understand that suffering, pain, jealousy and sadness are not something to evade, but something that is part of life and that can ultimately produce something good, if we wish to embrace it.
The people here work physically hard in the field, and their life is not easy. Juana is happy when her husband does not drink for a day and she does not have to run the restaurant on her own while minding her 4 kids. Santiago is fortunate when he gets a lift and does not have to travel in a pickup or walk two days home from the nearby hospital. Juan is hoping that the plagues will not finish with the maiz he cultivated so carefully. I do not want to romantize their life, because the trouble and risks that some of the youngsters take to cross the border to USA tells enough...
But still, many people told me they are happy and would not want to live anywhere else in the world...
Where the village´s party is the biggest event of the year on which they spend most of their scarce money. Where the forest provides suprises in the forms of good meals. Where there is no television, but there is time to sit down together. Without worrying about being busy, about having to go somewhere, about having to do something ´useful´. To tell stories of the time that the jaguar attacked the chicken or of the crocodile that was caught. To exchange family stories of death, birth, weddings. To ask simple questions on how you are, on how you awoke today, on the weather, on how the maize is doing in your field. Questions that are repeated, not because the answers are forgotton, but just to extend the time spend together. To let you know that you are welcome, that you are human just like them. As one drunkard told me truly ¨bones are bones, flesh is flesh¨.

So I send you this energy from the green mountains of Chiapas, the hapiness and sorrow of its people. I wish you all less work and more time to enjoy life in all its aspects!!
And I send you some greetings from the monkeys, birds, nosebears, tepescuintles in the archeological Mayan site of Tikal in the Guatemalan forest where I spend New Years night sleeping under the stars and almost full moon.... I have to admit I was so tired of my Guatemalan adventures that I fell asleep before 12, but several hours before I brinded on you guys with a good vegetable soup (uhmm yeah, since the banks closed down we could not afford to spend any more Quetzales on beer or wine)!!

Well to finish of... Like some of you know I have a little addiction for stealing, that manifests itself every now and then in rather innocent, non-preocupying forms...
So today I steal from Merlí a text that he used to inaugarate the new year, that he at his turn ´stole´from Nelson Mandela, who ´stole´ it again from someone else. Anyhow it stays a beautiful device (motto, parole) for 2007. For those who can read Spanish please read it at Merli el Mag´s site because the translation he found, is even more beautiful and so is the photo. But for you:

¨Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerfull beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am i to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabuleus? Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God (or Madre Tierra ;-) . Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the glory that is within us, like children do. And that glory is not in just some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.¨

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, inaugural speech 1994 Original text by: Marianne Williamson