How Mexican Values Are Changing Me

In this photo taken from the beach, the building in the upper left that looks like a ship is my new home.

I’m different than I was when I moved here to Mexico six months ago. Living in the Mexican culture, imbibing Mexican values, I feel easier about everything. I don’t worry so much about how things go. If something planned doesn’t happen, I have confidence that something else will happen, and I’m often more curious than frustrated. If I’m not feeling well, I go to bed willingly and know the things I meant to do can wait. If a shop is closed, I wander about alert for unexpected wonders. When I get irritated about something, like the roofers occupying my patio with tools and tiles, I notice a bit sooner that I’m behaving irritably toward them; I realize they’re just doing their job, I stop taking it out on them, and it occurs to me to offer a bowl of cherries and a liter of fresh coconut water instead.

Besides more patience and acceptance, I feel myself growing in kindness to strangers, not a quality I saw modeled in my youth. So many people smiling at me on the street every day changes my longstanding sense of isolation into one of belonging, which is perhaps the place where kindness is born. In my country of birth, we speak of the kindness of strangers as an uncommon thing, but here it seems a norm. The Mexican mores seem to presume belongingness, and its offspring of kindness. So, wanting more of that in myself, I soften in that direction.

These are behaviors I am cultivating with the help of a culture all around me that supports them. I have never been someone who looks to ‘find herself,’ as I don’t believe there is any permanent entity to ‘find.’ I create and shape who I am on a regular basis deliberately. So I’ve always been a work in progress, but living in Mexico seems to be speeding up the blossoming. Feeling safe, unrushed, and trusting, I wish for you the same.

Casita Susa, last door before the lake

lakeview from Casita Susa