It is a beautiful sunny day here volcanoside. It has been rainy then windy for the past week, so this change of pace is lovely. Today is the kind of day that makes me close my eyes and think, “There is no where else I should be but right here.”
Today is a slow days of chores at home. Washing clothes, cleaning the floors, and swaying in the hammock watching the laundry dry in the sun.
Most people spend their lives wishing they could do this exact thing (okay maybe not hand-wash clothes, but you know, live this way, without a pile of obligations and spend a whole afternoon dozing off in a hammock). I wonder how many people will read this today sitting in an office, a car, a classroom, and think, “I wish I was spending my afternoon in a hammock.”
Well…you are right. This is pretty fantastic.
So often I get caught up in the things that I am missing here that I forget to enjoy the things that I can only have here. Life here is not perfect; it is tedious, difficult, lonely, and often exasperating. But life here is also relaxing (if you let it be), low-maintenance, and low-responsibility. El Salvador is full of sunshine (in the dry season), people who are nice to me for no reason at all, licuados, a network of volunteers who let me crash anytime I need to, and I live in a wonderful little community where the people are always happy to see me. There is no reason not have a smile on my face.
There is also no reason why I can’t spend the afternoon in my hammock loving my quiet little life here. I think I’ll enjoy my book and drink some Crystal Light (thanks Mom!) and just swing…
