My Latest Adventure

I have been thinking a lot about the YouTube video I posted earlier, “How Can We Win?” with the activist Kimberly Jones. I found it heartbreaking. I also watched her followup interview with Trevor Noah.

This was another episode in my education regarding systemic racism and how insidious this is.

I was particularly struck by her comment, “We have created the warrior cop instead of the guardian of the community that we deserve.”

I limit my exposure to the news, but I was curious about what the current administration is doing to address these issues. Early ideas of defunding the police sounded reactionary and untenable; however, I did read about the following, constructive measures being implemented:

— In general, Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) gives cities and states historic levels of funding that they can use to put more cops on the beat, and invest in community-based violence prevention and intervention programs.

— In July, senior White House staff established the Community Violence Intervention (CVI) collaborative, a 16-jurisdiction cohort of mayors, law enforcement, CVI experts, and philanthropic leaders committed to using ARP funding or other public funding to increase investment in their community violence intervention infrastructure.

— The CVI is spending 18 months strengthening and scaling the jurisdictions’ community violence intervention infrastructure to reduce gun crime and promote public safety.

— National experts and federal agencies are providing training and technical assistance to help communities assess their existing public safety ecosystem, identify gaps, and build the capacity to expand programming that saves lives.

— Stemming the flow of firearms used to commit violence. I had never even heard of the “Iron Pipeline” before reading about Biden’s proposals.

— Expanding summer programming, employment opportunities, and other services and supports for teenagers and young adults.

— Helping formerly incarcerated individuals successfully reenter their communities.

And these things are already in process. It sounds hopeful. I feel that this is a gradual diminution in masculine ego energy: having to conquer, to win, to be on top. I say masculine and not male because it is not about gender, it is just the most contracted, negative, form of human energy as opposed to the more expansive compassion, inclusiveness and love at the other end. Happy Valentine’s Day!!

I have been coming to Panama since 2009. I never thought that the coffee was outstanding…until today. Barb and I went to the Buckle and Tiip, a new coffee shop along the park in town. I had a cappuccino.

I was amazed at the first sip. I talked to the waiter and asked what they use for pour over. This is it:

It actually says “pour over” on the bag, and he told me to set my grinder at 12. This is perfection. I have never spent this much on coffee before. $18 for 450 g (almost a pound). I had to invoke my most analytical decision-making process: “I could be dead tomorrow.” It is a delight just thinking about it. It is like wine: you get what you pay for.

Barb said she would like to go to Las Lajas. She chastised me a bit, “I asked you SO many times to go with me, and you always said it was too hot.” I can’t argue with that. I very likely did say that, but I am now a whole new beach person. So, we may be going the first part of March. Barb is also planning to leave for the U.S. the first part of April, so this timing feels better than going later in the month.

We’re going to ask Debra to go with us. Debra just broke up a seven-year relationship and is ready for some R&R before she leaves for her daughter’s in Canada. Perfect.

I picked up my thumb drive from Cathy this morning, as well as some caraway seed. I am going to prepare spareribs and sauerkraut for Gloria and Trevor.

I’m having a happy technology moment. This may be ho-hum for you, but for me it’s kind of a big deal. I finally figured out that I can sync all my photos and podcasts from my Mac to my iPhone and vice versa. I knew it was possible but never sat down and figured out how to do it. Today was the day. In the process, I also realized that I can recharge my iPhone while it is plugged into and syncing with my Mac. For some reason, I thought this was all being done automatically, but the hard-wire plug-in seems necessary…at least until some kid tells me otherwise… 🙂

I’m excited. I received an Amazon “delivery” today (had to pick up at RednBlue) , and it contained my new mechanical pencil (uni Kuru Toga 0.5) and a precision scissors (Cutter Bee). I love good tools. It makes everything more fun. We just love a good crease, right Barb? If I were a carpenter, I would be Tim Allen.

No, we’re not in Las Lajas anymore, but a good time was had by all, and the memory will stay with me forever. Such an amazing place. On the way home, Nancy and Kathy said that we will plan to go there every year when I come down. I won’t hesitate the next time.

Gloria’s sister, Angel, is coming to visit at the end of March. Gloria invited me to go along with them for a visit to Las Lajas, but I think I’ll pass on that. It seems too soon to do that again (why? no idea right now), but that is also very close to the end of my stay here, and it would feel rushed. I guess I can’t take too much luxury at one time.

Yesterday, as I sat near the pool writing, I noticed this gentleman walking around the resort, talking on his cell phone. He came and sat down in this spot for a little while. I had the thought that this is what doing business in 2022 looks like.

I learned later that this man is the owner of many of the very best restaurants in Boquete: Retro Gusto, A Pizza, Otto’s and The Butcher. There may be more, not sure. He is Italian. I don’t know his name. I hesitated posting this, but I learned that in the blogging world, if the person doesn’t want it posted, they can ask to have it taken down. So, right now, it’s just part of life.

I learned all this about him from Kathy (the very best source for current information – as long as you don’t hold her to it) when I commented on the cutest little girl who walked by us. Turns out, this was the restaurateur’s daughter. Kathy then gave me the scoop. So, another great example of Boquete expats enjoying Las Lajas as a get-away.

One last sand image:

I listened to an excellent podcast this morning by functional medicine physician Mark Hyman. He interviews , Kara Fitzgerald, MD, a specialist in epigenetics. They were discussing how our ability to prevent disease and slow down the aging process can be accomplished by using food, supplements, and exercise. (I wanted to add “medication” to that, but I’m not sure.) This is not big news, but I have experienced the benefits of genetic testing twice already, and so I am a strong advocate.

I had a genetic test called Genesight done in 2016 at a point of extreme emotional discomfort. Because of having this test done, I was placed on a medication that synchronized best with my metabolism. I think this basically means they determine which pathways your liver uses best to metabolize a given medication. It was a life changer.

And then recently I had genetic testing done with a functional medicine physician near my home. I was hoping to see her in regard to the issue of “osteoporosis” that has been following me around (for no good reason). Her name is Tamara Dall, MD, FNLP. Her preliminary workup includes genetic testing and blood work. She then looks at genetic risk for disease versus blood values that would contribute.

In our meeting, she said, “I know you are concerned about the osteoporosis, but what is more important is that you have what has become known as the ‘heart attack’ gene. AND my bloodwork showed an elevated CRP (inflammation marker). Could be from having had Covid…maybe not… So, I’ve agreed to taking a small dose of Zetia. I lost sleep over that one, but I have come to believe in the power of the genetic testing, and I am going to trust the functional medicine people. Plus, she said she would work with my primary care physician.

Okay, so, that sort of felt like TMI, but I know friends and family are reading this, so, just sayin’. This is the way medicine is going.

And now back to Boquete reality. I’m looking forward to spending the morning with Barb. We’re not doing our usual hike because I need to rest my feet and legs from the sand walking, but we’re going to drive into town and run a few errands. One stop is Cathy’s. Cathy Schulte is going to download the next four seasons of Seaside Hotel onto my thumb drive. I’m set!

This intro is especially for my husband, Dan. He once said, as we were riding on our tandem, “I’ll never know if you have Alzheimer’s,” because my answer was always, “I don’t know,” when he asked me where we were. I am truly geographically challenged. This morning, believe it or not, I completely overshot our resort entrance. I eventually saw a rather large, barn-looking building that I was “quite sure” I had never seen before. I asked a young man if he knew where Las Lajas was located. He said, “This is Las Lajas.” The whole beach is called Las Lajas, not just our resort! So, I just turned around, and, of course, I had past it. My friends said they watched me walk by and thought it was intentional. Maybe it was.

Funny that I had a dream last night that I was lost. I dream that a lot. I also recall a real-life memory from my childhood. I was about six years old. I apparently “knew” where a boy lived who had done something wrong. A policeman came to our house and asked me to show him where the boy lived. Well, danged if I could find it! I can still remember that feeling of confusion. I’ve gotten over it though. GPS is my best friend. I love technology.

So, my walk was a bit longer than anticipated this morning, and oh so lovely.

Don’t blink during this next one. I’ll try it again later, but these are the pelicans that fly overhead. I could not see my phone screen, so not sure what I pressed. They cast an impressive shadow over the resort when they fly over.

Last night’s dinner.

And a great breakfast after my walk.

A bit of excitement. I’m sitting here next to the pool, and Gloria just got stung by a scorpion. The pool cleared quickly. One man stayed in, caught the scorpion with a Croc, and promptly killed it on the tile at the edge of the pool. The owner took the scorpion and Gloria to the bar. He poured creme de menthe over the sting, rubbed the dead scorpion over the sting, gave Gloria a shot of the creme de menthe, poured a bit more over the sting, and Bob’s your uncle! Now you know.

Given that I have been mesmerized by all the patterns in the sand here, I found interesting this excerpt I read today from Painting in Flowing Out:

“When enjoying nature on a walk in the garden, note how patterns are everywhere: repeating patterns of veins in leaves and drops of water, spirals of fractality in pinecones or broccoli buds, and floral fractals such as Queen Anne’s lace. Some repetitions are as small as a pile of pebbles, or as large as the wave patterns, seen in the ocean. Some of these are forever expanding, as the planets or stars, their movements overlapping, or spiraling within each other. When we take time to recognize these repeating patterns, notice their prolific repetitions or the change from microcosmic to macrocosmic, we can only marvel. Mathematicians talk about the Fibonacci code as being a repeated formation in the Nautilus spiral, the sunflower, the snowflake, and other of nature’s creations based on this common fractal.”

I have found fractals interesting ever since watching a documentary on PBS about a group of biologists who cut down a tree in a virgin forest and discovered that this single tree represented the entire forest, or at least part of it. Each stem and branch represented another tree nearby.

I have also been reading about Carl Jung’s archetypes, which seem to be the fractal patterns from which our personal expressions evolve in the world. Wow! And now there is a band called Archetypes and Repetitions. A rabbit hole for sure. I can’t go there right now. It’s time for dinner.

Kathy said it was 88 degrees yesterday. I would have said 75. It is breezy perfection.

Getting back on the horse:

This morning’s walk:

And then we felt a tropical drink coming on…Cheers, Betty!

I went for a nice long walk along the beach this morning. Here are a few of the images I experienced. I love the patterns in the sand.

We’ve had a couple of iguanas visit today. They look to be a male and a female. I asked, what shall we name them? Kathy and Nancy both said, “Gracie and George.” And so it is. Meet Gracie and George.

Yay!! I finally got a decent Internet connection. Yesterday was hopeless. So I’m going to post some photos from our arrival yesterday. This is hands down the most beautiful beach I have ever experienced in my life. I feel like I’m dreaming. I’m so happy I decided to come. I was worried about the heat, but it is breezy and beautiful.

Views of the beach.

I was so surprised to see Suzanne here. She said she comes regularly with a group. I’m going to go boogie boarding with her sometime. I think it is interesting that Boquete is a get-away for expats, and now Las Lajas is the get-away from Boquete. I can see why. I’m feeling like a regular. I came with a group of five, and I knew two other people here. Small community.

And this is my writing spot. Life is good.

I was looking forward to today. Sundays are going to be my lazy days, which pretty much means no hiking and nothing mentally taxing (like databases); keeping up with this blog is taxing enough, but I also enjoy it enough to want to spend time on it.

Today was a good one.

So, first off, I slept for 11 hours last night. Love that. I woke at 6:45, but knew I wasn’t finished. I slept until 8:40. Delicious.

Then I moved on to coffee and calligraphy. My latest challenge is the stem stroke. It’s tough, but it is also quintessential Engrosser’s Script, the movement from hairline to shade and back to hairline. Ash told me to just keep doing the stem stroke over and over again until I have built muscle memory. This is today’s attempt. Not “there” yet. Lazy strokes for my lazy day.

Then I moved on to my conversation class with Hola Spanish! Again, I highly recommend it. Today we discussed our favorite movies and series in Spanish. I have acquired a great list. Then we watched movie trailers and were asked to answer questions, which we should have learned watching the trailer. Ha!! One of the great things about this class is that many others feel the same as I do. We get some of it, but not all…that’s why we’re here. We start out in one big group and then break into small chat groups to “try” to answer the questions.

This little guy is the neighbor dog. Reminds me of Cookie. I don’t know it’s name. It just wanders around here now and again.

I guess I’d better pack. We are leaving for the beach tomorrow. The beach is called Las Lajas. The “we” is Betty, Nancy, Kathy, Herta, Gloria and me. Gloria is a maybe. She’s not feeling well today, so she will be tentative. I was a little hesitant to go because I was worried about the heat, but I have been assured it’s not too bad. I have quite un-fond memories of being in Pedasi (one of the beach towns) a few years ago with Dan. I could not tolerate the heat. However, there was also no air conditioning. I am assuming we will have air conditioning at the hotel in Las Lajas. Worse comes to worst, I will have Nancy take me home. She is reading this right now and saying, “Right.”

I walked to La Fundación today. It’s a great 5-mile walk with the wind at my back. I enjoyed chatting with my knitting group and then got a lift home. I can’t remember if I posted a photo of what our knitting site looks like. I can’t find it right now, but we sit right outside La Fundación, which is a thrift store and a community meeting place for the disabled. Upon arrival, one must first go inside to see if any new treasures have been added because…you never know. I thought I might find a toner cartridge for my printer, but no such uck.

Today my friendly driver home was Nancy Peterson. She won the prize! Believe it or not, Nancy and her former husband used to live in a house they built in a subdivision off HIghway D in North Prairie. Nancy likely lived less than 10 miles from me in Delafield.

I left one of my walking poles in Nancy’s car, so she was nice enough to bring it to my house. So, then I got to see Bailey! I didn’t get his photo today, but I will, someday. He’s a cutie. He knows me as the “cheese lady.” Today he was looking into my eyes, saying, “It’s great to see you again, but where’s the cheese?”

Here are a couple of photos I did take today on my walk. I think this is the courthouse, although I have never heard anyone talk about having to go here.

I especially like the rock. It feels so substantial. The plaque on the left says Rock of Volcanic Origin.

The following is a rough Google Translate rendition of what is on the plaque on the right:

By divine design
From the bowels of the earth expelled
This rock has here found its destiny

Centuries have passed
at its side

The instruction of justice
has been built

It is the rock of justice
Natural pedestal
Where country and family
United will grow

Review the message sent through millenia
On this rock
Justice will stand

It brings to mind a video I rewatched recently of a young black woman journalist by the name of Kimberly Jones. You may have seen it. The title is How Can We Win I watched it for a class I’m taking called Soul Matters. I dug the video up, if you’re interested. I like adding links now. Jones was in the thick of it in Georgia during the civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd. Jones is eloquent and impassioned about the racial inequality and injustice that have been going on in the U.S. for hundreds of years. She is angry, yes, but she also sounds tired and frustrated. In the end, she said that that the oppressors are lucky that what black people want is equality and not revenge. She also said, “We have created the warrior cop instead of the guardian of the community that we deserve. ” Slowly, slowly I feel things are changing. In her tirade Jones says that she was so grateful for the education she received as a young person. I am too. She can now speak truth to power.

I hear the same courageous, intelligent audacity coming through Barbara Lee, a congressperson from CA. She was interviewed on NPR the other day in regard to a documentary that has come out about her life. Lee learned much from Shirley Chisholm. I just looked it up; the documentary is called Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power. It’s being aired on Starz, which I obviously have no access to right now, but it is definitely on my list.

The interview on NPR was compelling. I loved hearing Lee talk about her shaming of the “old boy” politicians who lacked the courage to vote honestly on issues and instead worried only about their re-elections. Like the “moral authority” I wrote about the other day, the demand for integrity is something that I believe these strong-willed, intelligent women are bringing back to our social fabric. Thank you.

Okay, back to my walk. Here is another image that I love. I don’t know the history of this building, but it is called Ave Maria, and there is a kindergarten attached to it.

Saturday morning: I had a lovely hike with Barb this morning. We went to the area known as Jaramillo. We met some friends while hiking. I only knew Chris Duffy. Barb introduced me to her friend Mike. When Mike learned I was from Wisconsin he told me that his aunt lived in Madison and used to have a radio program: Judy Rose – Simply Folk. Small world.

I have been wanting to learn how to play pickleball since I heard about it a couple of years ago. I was hoping to find a place to play when I got home last spring, but Covid put an end to all of that. At Trivia recently, I met a man named Ashley. He told me about the local games. He plays three times a week. So, Trevor and I went today for a beginner lesson. I’m hooked.

And this lovely face greeted me when I got home.

So, tonight’s dinner is a curried lentil/pork sausage stew, hummus with french bread and bananas Foster for dessert.

Today’s playtime: