Christmas 2017

Judy. I have to admit, it’s a strange Christmas season. Granted, for the past few years, we’ve celebrated Christmas Day together or with other “orphaned parents,” as our kids—rightfully—celebrate on their own or with in-laws. The day itself has not been as important as the fact that we DO gather at some point to eat and open gifts. But this year the kids’ work schedules are such that we celebrate with one family one day, and the other, the next. Don’t get me wrong—I’ll take what I can get—it’s just one more new experience.

Add to that, with no house of our own, there are no decorations. We left our Airbnb a week ago, and are house sitting for friends who are in Florida. We did get a big (for Atlanta) snow, unheard of in early December, but it’s long gone. For someone to whom Christmas morning has always been magic, the change has been, well, different.

As with so many of our new experiences, though, there are gifts that have come our way. Most notably, I truly have time to enjoy Advent, my favorite church season. Gifts, such as they are (we prefer to give experiences), were bought long ago, and there are no decorations to dig out and hang. We’ve been able to avoid the horrible traffic most of the time. Our days are spent reading, walking, visiting friends, and enjoying our lives. Staying with friends in the mountains, we went to a Christmas pageant at a nearby church. We attended a magnificent Advent Lessons and Carols, and I’m reading Kathleen Norris’s book, Amazing Grace. The period of waiting is aided by the gloomy skies, and I find a strange comfort in that. New life is coming.

I look forward to the separate celebrations with my family, and to a Christmas visit with my brother and sister-in-law for a few days. We used to see each other every Christmas, but life has made that far too difficult in the past few years. Yes, it’s different, and really quite lovely—a gift of new experiences.

What's next?

Ted. As we come to the end of our first year as nomads, a question we are often asked is, “Have you gotten this out of your system and decided to settle down?” Not really. As Rick Steves would say, we plan to “Keep on travelin’!” However, our experiences in 2017 are shaping our plans for 2018.

For instance, I discovered that Face Time is great but, after a while, I really miss hugging my 3 grandsons.  

Parker (15) & Caedmon (5)

Oliver (11 months)

My preference now is to not be away from Atlanta for more than three months at a time. We have also realized that we only need about a month to get caught up with our family and friends here.

When we moved out of our apartment last year, we put a number of items into a 10’x10’ storage unit with the thought that we could quickly furnish an apartment should our new lifestyle prove unsatisfactory. We have decided that this will not happen anytime soon so are working to shrink this pile of "stuff" into a unit about half that size.  

Our experience in Oaxaca taught us the merits of an extended stay. In the future, we will mix long term stays with ramblings.

With all of this in mind, we are beginning to map out our travel plans for 2018. We are planning three 3-month stints separated each time by a month back in Atlanta.

Our first junket begins in early January. We will visit several friends in Florida and then fly to Spain on Jan 17. This is partially due to the fact that flights to Europe are much cheaper from Florida than from Atlanta. We have rented an apartment in the town of Cádiz for two months. Not only is this a beautiful town on the Atlantic coast of Andalusia, it is very near Sevilla where our Spanish "son" Alex lives with his wife and 2 children. Alex lived with us for a year as an exchange student in the 90’s and we have remained very close. We look forward to several visits with our Spanish family during that time. On March 14, we will travel to Aix-en-Provence in southern France where we have booked an apartment for a month. We have always loved France and, after a year studying Spanish, it will be nice to relax back into French. We will also rendezvous with some longtime (not old) friends Don and Catherine who live in France. In late April, we will head for home via Devon in England where we will visit with Bill and Mary, whom we have not seen in quite a while.

After a month in Atlanta, we plan to travel to Atlantic Canada for three months, return to Atlanta for a month and then take three more months in Europe. One constraint on our European travel is something called the Schengen Agreement, which limits our visits on that continent to 90 days out of every 180. High priorities for this trip will be to visit friends in Poland and meet up with our family who lives in Hungary.

Have you noticed a theme here? Some of our favorite memories of 2017 are celebrating our 40^th anniversary with Georgia friends and family in Hungary, snorkeling with Georgia friends in Hawaii and exploring a Kauri forest in New Zealand with a Swedish friend. While we have enjoyed meeting new people during our travels around the world and hope to see many of them again, we also believe that our travels actually strengthen our long time connections to friends and family. I am reminded of a little song my daughter, Leslie learned as a Girl Scout; “Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.”

In search of fulfillment

Ted. My last working day was exactly one year ago, 11/30/16. Last night, Judy and I returned to “the scene of the crime” as the current owners of the business that I helped found in 1996 invited us back for the company's annual Christmas party. It was a lot of fun and we heard stories of the busy, happy and rewarding year that they have enjoyed in my absence, which did my heart good. The company, owners and employees are flourishing.

By contrast, though, many friends and family members that we are visiting with now, appear to be suffering, and not flourishing. They are either stuck in jobs that they don't like or, having retired, are trapped in frustrating volunteer commitments.

Today, I read an article at Forbes.com by John Coleman entitled “The Crucial Thing Missing From the Work-Life Balance Debate.” It caused me to reflect on the choices that I am making as well as those of others I have been speaking with recently. Here’s a link if you want to read it yourself:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2017/11/29/the-crucial-thing-missing-from-the-work-life-balance-debate/#6419538bcc4f

Mr. Coleman challenges us to examine where we spend our time, both at home and at work and categorize each activity using the following matrix:

Many people who know and love us tell us how happy they are that we are "living our dream." What they actually seeing, though is two people that are trying to focus more time on activities that are both purposeful and joyful. Our lives are not perfect but our goal is to truly flourish. My hope is that some of our friends and family will make progress in 2018 along their own paths to fulfillment. 

Establishing community

Judy. It is definitely good to be back with family and friends. Our calendar is filling up quickly with lunch, dinner, coffee, house sitting, and houseguest dates, all of which we’re enjoying immensely. Spending time with our three grandsons is an extra treat.

But we left behind a community in Oaxaca that made it a little more difficult to leave than it has been in other cities, so I want to give a virtual hug to the folks we left behind:

Our fellow teachers through En Via—Kendall and Leila, the new education coordinators; Rubyat, the special ed teacher from San Diego who is spending his sabbatical working with the kids in the Pueblos; Julia, just out of college and trying to figure out what’s next (and a fine teacher), Hanna, traveling south of the border in part because it’s cheaper to live, and looking for volunteer opportunities wherever. Hanna, an artist who’s learning beading techniques so she can still create and travel, became a good shopping and exploring buddy, and I miss her.

Tlocochahya teachers

On Wednesdays after classes, we all stopped by the Park El Llano for the “best esquites in Oaxaca”, and on Fridays met for “tacos at two” at the tianguis, the traveling market. 

Kitty and Francesca, our “next door neighbors” in the Airbnb—sisters, one living in Florida and the other in the Yucatan, who meet in various areas of Mexico each year. They spend some time sightseeing, but mostly catching up with each other.

Kitty, Francesca, and Catrina

We spent evenings on the rooftop patio drinking wine and sharing food and sightseeing recommendations.

Tonio, my yoga teacher at Prana Yoga--I was often his only student, so the class was tailored to me. He pushed me to go as far as I could, as long as I respected what my body could do. He also told me that because of my age, "the student has become the teacher." Having a class in Spanish really helped me improve mine!  

Tonio

Javier, who owned and operated Nanixhe, a tiny restaurant (two tables inside, two outside)—he cooked, bartended, cleaned, and still found time to sit with us and drink mezcal while we munched on his incredible tapas. He shared his dreams with us on many an evening.

Javier at work

The kids we taught—funny, frustrating, smart, and not so smart.

Maria, who owned the B & B where we first stayed (and experienced our first earthquake)—we said we only wanted coffee and bread at breakfast, but she wormed her way into our hearts and stomachs with the dishes she “just happened to be cooking”.

Maria

She also gave us our first introduction to the city and encouraged our Spanish.

The folks we met at the intercambio conversations (one hour in Spanish and one hour in English) on Saturday mornings at the Oaxaca Lending Library, especially the guy who, after I had apologized again for my lousy Spanish told me, “Hey, you’re communicating. You’re fine!” He’ll never know how much encouragement that gave me.

The tiny congregation at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, and the coffee hour after the service. We got a lot of information from those folks. We seemed to run into Kathi (lives in Oaxaca, has a car in Boulder) all over town--she shares our travel dreams.

William and Nora, the hosts of our Airbnb. William gave us countless suggestions for restaurants and street food, and often invited Ted to go with him to run errands. Nora gave me a great lesson on the different types of clothing available, where they were made and what to look for.

Oh, and the folks at Oaxaca in a Cup, whose names I never learned, but, who, when they saw me coming, said, “Si—chocolate caliente con agua!” before I could place my order for hot chocolate. I guess I went there a lot.

There were others—Alfredo the gatekeeper at En Via, Arturo at the coffeeshop, the little girls at a Days of the Dead celebration who ran up to practice their English, and, oh, so many more--but these people made our stay—our life in Oaxaca—a real life, and not just a visit. Whether or not we see them again, they have become a part of our journey.

Hanna, Julia, and Kristin at the Tlocolula Sunday Market

Ted and Rubyat at Xocimilco

Little Catrinas at Xocimilco