Lookie, Lookie!
The latest excursion for this BBC show on retirement spots all over the world is Guadalajara and Ajijic, including the fraccionamiento where I live–the Raquet Club! There are several people featured that I know.The first woman shown in the pool at the start of the video is my friend Lety. She is also shown at the end of the video. The pool they are in is two blocks from my house and the view you see is my view. If you are viewing this from elsewhere, wanna come visit?
Click on any photo to enlarge all. The Poem “An Ex-Pat’s Credo” follows the photos.
An Ex-Pat’s Credo
Some may think my generation’s recent mass migration
to be a “giving up” on life—a certain violation.
That rubric that we stay engaged to ease our children’s lives—
to witness births of babies (then their twos, threes, fours and fives)
may not be the paradigm we choose when we are older.
Some of us want changes, and some of us are bolder.
We want to spend remaining years discovering and delving.
Do you think it’s selfish to continue with our “selving?”
Families are wonderful and we love them well,
but parents can’t be always living by the bell.
Once a child is raised and off on their next adventure,
their parents have not signed any articles of indenture.
They, too, can now be off to see what else their life may hold,
and though that path’s not right for all, before they’re very old
they might desire a warmer place or country that is new,
but what they choose to leave behind is certainly not you.
They’ll carry you in hearts and minds, and they’ll still hold you dear.
They’ll Skype you and they’ll Facebook. They’ll visit every year.
They’ll be there for graduations, celebrations and each birth.
They’ll share your family’s traumas, their successes and their mirth.
But they won’t be waiting at home for you to call,
for the children to find time for them between school and football
and proms and camp and movies and parties with their friends,
for they well remember that the schedule never ends!
See this as rehearsal for the day your kids will go
off to other places to learn and change and grow.
You’ll wish them well and though you’re sad, will send them to their fate.
and then perhaps decide there’s more than kids to educate.
You’ll then be free to concentrate on new states of existence—
free we hope as we’ve been from their loud insistence
that you spend the whole rest of your life putting them first
no matter what your own dreams are, no matter how you thirst
to see what there is left in life, perhaps, like us, to travel
not through a wish to leave behind, not seeking to unravel,
but rather like two busy bees intent upon their hive,
demonstrating by their acts that they are still alive!
The prompt words today are migration, violation, rubric (an established rule, tradition, or custom) and concentrate. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/09/25/rdp-tuesday-migration/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/09/25/fowc-with-fandango-violation/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/09/25/rubric/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/09/23/daily-addictions-2018-week-38/concentrate
We Gather Together
This is not quite what I have in mind, but it was the only one-story X shaped house I could find on Google images.
I would love to have the money to build another house on the land I own that adjoins my own lot. It would be one story high, so as not to impede my view. It would be in the shape of an “X” with a common area in the shape of a large donut in the middle. In the very center (the hole of the donut) would be an atrium with one or two large trees filled with hanging wire baskets stuffed with spagnum moss that would be the home of bromeliads and orchids. The ring part of the donut would contain a kitchen, dining room and living room/game room–all interconnected but with sliding glass doors out to the atrium. Each of the arms of the X would have a bedroom, living room, bathroom and study/art studio.
At the end of the lot nearest the street and adjoining my studio with a little stile-like bridge that extends over the wall between the upper and lower lot would be a larger art studio with saws, buffers, polishers and drills as well as more space for storage, group activities and classes. The art studio would be on the second level, with a commodious elevator capable of taking larger sculptures and people down to street level. Since that lot is much lower than my lot, the second story would be on the same level as my studio. The first level would be another living space that ties in with my main purpose for building this house.
I want to create a space where three or four of my friends or relatives could come to spend their old age. If there were four, the space under the studio would be a living space for a caretaker/nurse/housekeeper. If I got too feeble to live in my house, I’d move into one of the legs of the house below. Otherwise, I could visit my friends or relatives there. If it were necessary, a nurse or housekeeper/cook could occupy one of the legs of the “X.” It would just be nice to be able to all be together to face old age as well as to keep each other young and silly for as long as possible.
This is a bit grand, and two-story, but shows that an X-shaped house could work. It is missing the middle donut shared area and atrium. (image from Google images)
The Prompt: Tell us about the one luxury item you wish you could afford, in as much detail as you can. Paint a picture for us.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/keeping-up-with-the-jones/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 