My life needs more spontaneity.
That is why, even though I knew I wanted to get away from the Melaque summer heat this year, I made no plans on how I would do it.
Well, not initially. I first thought I would do something quite different for the summer. I would take a house on Lake Zirahuén for three months.
I love the lake. On my trip to Pátzcuaro last year, I would drive to its shore to relax. The lake has a certain Alpine feel to it. A bit like Lake Tahoe must have felt a century ago.
But that idea lasted only a day. Where is the spontaneity in planning the full summer that far ahead?
Instead, I decided to go to San Miguel for the month of August. I would then decide where to go for the month of September.
You all know what happened to the San Miguel stay. I ended up in Oregon for the first two weeks of August.
When I finally got to San Miguel, I realized I had left all of my travel research books in Melaque. That turned out to be fortuitous because I lived my two weeks there on whim.
And my subsequent decisions to visit Morelia and Pátzcuaro were just as spontaneous. The experience fed my libertarian soul.
I am glad this is a flexible trip. On Tuesday I was scheduled to breakfast with a group of men in Pátzcuaro and to have lunch with my fellow blogger Don Cuevas and his wife.
But my stomach demurred. On Monday night my digestive system decided to simulate Mount Etna at both ends. Things are better this afternoon. But I do not wander very far away from the bathroom.
I can breakfast with the men’s group next Tuesday. And the Don and his wife are working on an alternate date.
If I had planned one of my usual bustling trips, that disruption would have bothered me. Instead, I can sit and relax with my Kindle (where I am reading T.R. Fehrenbach’s interestingly provocative history of Mexico: Fire and Blood) without feeling that I should be Doing Something.
One lesson I continue to learn in Mexico that it is more important to live the life we are given than to spend a good deal of time trying to Do Something. And Be Someone.
So, I will wait out this little bout of stomach flu. And then see what else comes ambling down the road.
