Spring is Here in Chile

Everywhere, spring says hello. A walk in the park becomes a walk through the smells of jasmine and freesia, unidentified tree blossoms and the dust on the wind. Nature's perfumes have arrived.

I have started wearing my peach summer dress. I have pulled off and put away two of the four bedspreads from my una y media plaza cama (twin bed). Our daschund is in heat. Lua and I go to the fruit and vegetable market on Tobalaba and Ossa Saturday mornings, and the viejitos flirt with us. We run three days a week.

I went to La Serena over the weekend. We stayed at a house on a hill in Altovalsol, the beginning of Valle del Elqui, a very famous valley for camping (because it is sooooo beautiful). Imagine, if you can, Napa Valley on a beautiful spring day, grape vines soaking up the sun, their green leaves almost becoming transparent in the bright light. Undulating hills of green. Birds flitting and playing and chirping. A hawk soaring overhead in blue, blue sky, the kind of blue they call "calipso." I stayed in house that had a patio and a sun porch overlooking this view. It was a weekend of dancing and reading and staring awe-inspired into the depths of a grandiose scene. My favorite kind of weekend.

It was while looking at this view that I realized how lucky I am to have everything that I have. That life is not perfect. In fact, life's imperfections is what gives it its flavor. I also realized that maybe, though Pollo and I have our differences, it is our differences that give our relationship (or non-relationship, or whatever it is or isn't) its character, its fuerza (strength). Perhaps the blessing of life is not in its easy weekends but in the depths of the struggle, in the flesh that toils, in the collective power of our hearts and minds wanting, needing, striving.

Of course I thought all this while comfortably reading and doing absolutely nothing...so, um, maybe, the blessing of life really IS the easy weekend.