<\/p>\n
Recently, I was asked a potent question by a friend passing through town.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is the biggest adjustment you\u2019ve had to make living in Mexico?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My mind started racing with possibilities. Was it the barrage of dirt and dust that settles into every square inch of space? Was it the language barrier that creates an arms-length relationship with locals? Maybe it was the vendors around every corner selling trinkets, likely to feed their family. Or maybe it was replying with the standard and rehearsed \u201cNo hoy, pero muchas gracias,<\/em>\u201d for the fiftieth time. Perhaps it was relying on my own two feet or the local bus to get me where I needed to go.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No. Those didn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I took a bite of my al pastor <\/em>taco and washed it down with agua mineral <\/em>as motorcycles and ATVs whizzed by in the growing darkness. A 1990\u2019s Ford truck slowly rolled past blaring traditional Mexican music. Horses clip-clopped along the cobblestone while dogs and chickens howled loudly and sleep tugged at my eyes from the night before. The culprit? Our neighbors had thrown a full-blown fiesta <\/em>until 5 a.m.\u2014 complete with a live band and karaoke between sets. The night before that it was fireworks exploding in the sky to celebrate a patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFor me, the biggest adjustment has been the noise,\u201d I finally said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yes, that felt right. The noise. It is constant\u2014unrelenting even. No other country I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to form footsteps in has been so…loud. Except for India. Yet, for all of the frustrations, I\u2019ve come to realize that it brings a sense of gratefulness and presence to my life that has been hard to find in other ways. I become grounded into the moment and my mind releases all of the inner overthinking\u2014all of the irrational worries. Every moment is imbued with meaning. Every minute holds immense value.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Immersing into this culture for so long has shifted that external noise into internal music\u2014and what a beautiful gift it has been. I acknowledge and recognize the immense <\/em>privilege to even be able to make a statement like that and it is not lost on me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I know Mexico is not for everyone and there are certainly other challenges, but I can\u2019t think of anywhere else I would rather be than right here\u2014amongst all that exquisite clamor and din. Those dusty roads, the fumbling exchanges in Spanish, purchasing fruit from a vendor or offering a cold beer to a construction foreman in flip flops, even the local bus\u2014it\u2019s all an opportunity to see how the vast majority of the world lives; and to have compassion for what I can\u2019t and likely will never fully understand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The best part? After three years of living here, the nameless street vendors, the bus drivers, the taco stand employees, even the rowdy neighbors\u2014they all have a name and they all have become friends. Monica. Mart\u00edn. Nimrod. Patr\u00edcia. Oswaldo. Jos\u00e9 and Antonio. Karen and Lulu. My girlfriend and I even baked them homemade cookies for Christmas and we were met with a warm embrace. The arms-length distance has grown smaller and each subsequent run-in now starts and ends with another hug.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s made me realize that there is no barrier to the language of love and human connection, but it does take time. Thankfully, in Mexico, time moves a little slower\u2014reveled in a little longer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here, every day is a celebration and every day brings a new gift; for me, that is enough. Thank you for the warm embrace, Mexico.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2022 Ryan Crain<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, I was asked a potent question by a friend passing through town. \u201cWhat is the biggest adjustment you\u2019ve had to make living in Mexico?\u201d My mind started racing with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sayulita-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sayulitalife.com\/sayulero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}