Friday, May 16, 2014

Surfing the Waves of Change






Imagine, you have come to a time when you assume that your education and experience are sufficient to handle whatever life might throw your way. Then imagine that same ‘life’ yanking the ground out from under your feet. Not an uncommon feeling when a major life change occurs. It definitely describes the sensations surrounding our move from the U.S. to the under developed Central American country of Honduras.
When the outcome of our choices are as we expect or better, people embrace the change like a new love affair.  If the change occurs differently than planned or when least expected, its affect can hit with the force of a tsunami.

The Universal Principle of Causation (Law of Cause & Effect) states that there are neither accidents nor mistakes. There are only results of our conscious or unconscious thoughts. From there, it’s all about what we decide to make of the experience. Will it crush us or make us greater?

In 2006 my husband, Ordin, and I decided to leave our Hawaiian home and move closer to family in the mainland U.S. A coastal lifestyle in the U.S. was cost prohibitive to us so we chose to move a bit south of there; Central America. It was a conscious plan that is easier to defend in retrospect than it was at the time of its conception. We sold our home, most of our possessions and left the country of our birth, heading for the Caribbean Coast of Honduras.

Surfing Hawaii’s treacherous winter waves cannot be harder than the emotional demand in letting go of friends bound heart to heart. However, changes happening within our mainland families required closing the distance. As prepared as we thought we were to immerse ourselves in a totally foreign culture, our decision would challenge us with experiences that we had never imagined.


If we had drawn a card from a tarot deck before leaving, it would have likely been the FOOL. The character of the fool is serendipitous, naive and trusting as he steps off of the cliff and out into the world. That pretty much sums up our shared state of mind as we set our sights east. In our hearts we knew that the outcome would ultimately be up to us. If we chose to see the result as a poor choice that is exactly what it would become. If we decided to see each new experience as part of an adventure then the sense of thrill would override any rising fright.

Eight years later we are still here. Our little beach town of El Porvenir feels like a Spanish speaking rendition of the TV program, Mayberry RFD.  It is a typical Honduras community with barely any English speaking inhabitants. Our first year had us vacillating between living the “gee whiz” role of Gomer Pyle and the knee-jerking reactions of up-tight Barney Fife. Now, I feel we have attained the more relaxed confidence of the program’s sheriff, Andy Taylor.
Had we given up when the surf was rough we might have become sour in our attitudes. As it is we are happy adventurers who have grown in their perspective of the world. I think happiness  is the ultimate life goal.  
 
I invite you to share the adventure by reading the award winning book that came from the experience:



And follow the ongoing adventures on Face Book.


 https://www.facebook.com/Gringos.n.Paradise?ref=hl

photos of El Porvenir beach and the tarot card Fool from my private collection

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