Hello

Hello.  I am a 72-year-old woman from the U.S. whose son has set up a blog to encourage her to write and share her thoughts. The blog begins with some dark reflections I shared with him on Christmas day.   I don’t know who you are, you who read this.  You may be only one, aforementioned son! Most of my entries won’t be as dark as the one from Christmas day, but I believe it behooves us to observe and acknowledge the demons that plague us. 

I live in the southern Pacific area of Costa Rica, and have lived (or spent much of the year) here for the past 20 years.  That doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned my country: I continue to follow the news closely, and returned last November to the Detroit area where I was born to help out at the polls.  Living abroad has only sharpened my identity as an American from the United States.  I may even be ready to go back there soon, despite its current problems.

My reasons for writing this blog are personal: I hope it will encourage me to spend more time in quiet reflection, and allay some of my constant inner anxiety about whether I’m accomplishing enough to justify my existence, some of the doubt that anything I accomplish now, or have ever accomplished, has any real or lasting value.  As well, I welcome the chance to share some of the day-to-day experience of being in this remarkable little country, with all its amazing biodiversity, its advantages and disadvantages, its vibrant friendly people.  

Beyond my Christmas thoughts I don't know what will follow. It's an unexplored path.