More space is one of the allures of living in the country. Leaving our filing cabinet of an apartment and renting this cottage (for the same price!) gives Colm space to play and compose music without neighbors to think about. I also have a lot of space in my new kitchen to be creative and enjoy cooking. But more importantly we have space for Kaifina. We wanted plenty of space for our baby girl to run wild. There's a walled garden on the property as well as chickens, geese and ducks. It's somewhere she can be intrigued by the wonders of Mother Nature instead of Dora the Explorer. Where she can experience the peacefulness of our surroundings instead of the insecurities of consumerism. It’s quite an ideal we’ve set for ourselves, but watching bee bounce from flower to flower reminds me that a steady pace forward is all I need to ask of myself now.
As I sit on my stoop, my attention falls on the shimmering of the stone floor of the courtyard. I didn’t really know what to make of it at first. Being a city girl from one of hottest climates in Venezuela, I’d never really seen anything like it. That’s when I saw, at the end of one of the trails, hiding in the shadows, this ugly, slimy brown thing with a shell on its back. It was barely evading the sun in the shadow made by a leaf overhead. I remembered seeing it before, stuck to the glass panes of my door showing me its pink underbelly. I could never bring myself to touch it directly. If I need to remove it from the door panes or my kitchen floor and take it outside, I require a paper towel. I never imagined that this thing could leave behind something so beautiful.There were so many trails left behind by a large snail network that they made the whole courtyard gleam in the sunlight.
I want my life to gleam from the stories and experiences of life. I don’t strive to be famous or über wealthy, but I want my life to be brilliant, joyous, wholesome, loving, grounded, intuitive, peaceful, healthy, and harmonious, with gratitude sprinkled on top. I want to be a mother who raises a confident, independent, grounded, self-aware, happy, healthy, curious, peaceful daughter. I want to share all this goodness with my husband, his family, my parents, brother, sister, friends and fellow citizens of the world. I want to be able to look back at my life and be proud at my attempt to play the game.