The Meaning of Christmas

At first, Christmas Spirit seemed to be lacking this year and I couldn't really put my finger on what was to blame. Was it just too damn hot on this island for Christmas? Are island people too "chill" to really get into celebrating anything? Is Christmas Spirit keeping it's distance because of the sharks? After a few weeks of pouting, I acknowledged the absence of Christmas joy was due to my own Grinchiness. I wanted my Christmas and I was out of my element.

My attempt at Halloween was so tired that I completely ignored Thanksgiving, and I only decided to put a tiny effort into Christmas a few weeks ago...and only because I was teaching US Christmas traditions in school. Listening to little kids singing Rudolph every day is bound to incite holiday cheer, even in the most Scroogy of Scrooges.

Being so far away and immersed in another culture gives me this weird "It's a Wonderful Life" feeling of watching America carry on without me. (Thanks, Facebook.) The result is a rather strange trichotomy; sometimes I'm elated to see what my family and friends are achieving. Sometimes I get really homesick. And sometimes I roll my eyes, shut off facebook as quickly as possible, and thank God I'm far far away from the USA.

Like stormy black ocean waves, every December the same kinds of posts come rolling in: which companies are saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays," which celebrities are talking/not talking about Jesus, and the ensuing rage from either or both sides. I lost count of how many times I saw that dude from Duck Dynasty's face this year, attached to some energized rant explaining why he is a Saint/Satan. It's disappointing that posts like that crawl around my facebook for weeks, while comparatively, reactions to the death of Nelson Mandela were but a few.

I remember the coolest thing I discovered when I first came to Reunion Island was that all religions live together peacefully. They share each other's holidays, they wish each other well. When one group celebrates, the rest of the island takes advantage of the excitement, spectacle and good will (and days off, when possible!)

I am always astounded by how much "correct phrasing" matters to many Americans. That the official label of happiness we wish for someone actually matters more than the happiness itself. Merry Christmas! (Is better/worse than) Happy Kwanza! (Is better/worse than) Happy Holidays! Do we not realize that the sentiment behind uttering all of these phrases is supposed to be happiness??

Jesus--like many other enlightened humans who have inspired religious followings or have taught outside of organized religion--lived and preached unconditional love. This love was so powerful that thousands of years later, a ton of people across planet Earth still use his birthday to share and demonstrate their love for the people in their lives. Whatever words we choose to use in December--Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, even gifting, Santa and "consumerism" if you want to go there--can we just all take a moment and realize that the origin behind all of it is love?

Regardless of your religious affiliation, your political party, of even if you choose to believe in Jesus--that love he represents is there for you to accept or not. It was given to all of humanity (not only Catholics, Christians, or people who believe in him) by Jesus. And Ghandi. And Buddha. And many, many others. Maybe one year, we can all agree to focus on that, letting all of the political and religious battling every December fall away? That would be a cool present.

"During this holy time, know that all times are holy, that every religion holds truth, that each tradition is sacred, and that it is in the simple sharing of love that we make our beliefs come alive, and our dreams come true. Let this Christmas Day remind us that Christ came to invite us to offer love to all humankind, and to open the door of God's kingdom to every soul." 

Neale Donald Walsh

So after some serious reflection, Christmas Spirit found me! (Despite the sharks.) We passed a sweet moment at my in-laws, mixing a little bit of American, Creole, and French traditions. We started on Christmas Eve...

the garden

First time eating meat again in over a month...I made an exception.

oyster course in the garden :-)

Mrs. Claus even stopped by!!!

Then it was time for karaoke 

At midnight we helped the rest of the island light up the sky.

And then, American style, we went straight to bed so Santa would finally come! In the morning, we opened presents and sat around the table for Round Two...

Christmas ice cream log! (?)

It was definitely a memorable Christmas.

And so, from the bottom of my heart, I am sending love and joy to every single one of you.
I truly hope that you share the most wonderful day with the people you love.

Keeping Busy

This past month I dove head first into the proverbial "biting off more than you can chew." I was just so happy to be working and have so many other offers for things that I gave a very excited YES to everything and everyone, without realizing that I'd somehow have to do all these things at the same time. These things included my regular job, of course, with a perfectionist's level of extra hours on weekends planning/preparing. Then I started a second job in a neighboring city teaching English through a company. Then I signed on to a modeling agency in St. Denis, got a car and tried to drive without just constantly screaming at it out of pure fear, dealt with French bureaucratic laws about my permit (aka looong lines at the DMV and never any good news..) helped a friend plan a Halloween party, planned a birthday photoshoot for my sister-in-law and her family, conducted private lessons at my home, and took on another Halloween project for a few days at an elementary school. I kept up (mostly) on my workouts, and the wifely duties of ironing and house cleaning, while cooking somehow got pushed out of the way. (Although I did bake a borderline weird amount of banana bread this month, does that count?)

Here are some photos:

I made hot dog mummies, thanks pinterest!

And I carved a jack-o-lantern...pumpkins or no pumpkins, the show must go on! 

Aurelie's 30th birthday photoshoot with Elena Iv-Skaya photography went amazingly well....

My new car...

Complete with the Santa Cruz mermaid from our awesome trip at my cousin's house in August <3

But then I immediately drove it into a ditch:

Ok but I never claimed to be a good driver...even in the US where we have lots of space and we are not forced to park in odd ways, I hated driving. But driving in Reunion is a whole different world. It is sadly/hilariously identical to driving in a video game. There are always people trying to bump you off the road. The only rule that everyone follows seems to be "try not to die." And lurking around each steep corner are random obstacles like banana peels, falling rocks, giant ocean waves, chickens, and dogs that appear to be dead but are really just sleeping. It's just all so horrifying.

Moving on...we had a language assistant mandatory fun day where we drove around in the rain on a bus, ate creole food, then went on a "discovery" treasure hunt in St. Paul. 

Ok I admit I was not looking forward to it but everything turned out okay. I especially liked our stop at the little mountain house that extracts the essential oil from geranium plants:

And finally, since Richard and I don't see each other much these days, we have resolved to have one date weekend a month where we go somewhere cool, and every other weekend we try to get out in nature somehow.

Here's date weekend in St. Rose, at the gite La Roseraye:

Here's Le Tour des Roches hike in St. Paul with Elena and James:

And this weekend was date weekend in the Grand Basin, which was breathtaking and awesome and our gite didn't have electricity so everything at night was by candlelight <3

Here's the Basin on the way down the mountain...

and here it is a little closer

Richard's friend owns the gite and apparently they spent a lot of time down there while they were growing up. So Richard knew a lot of places to take me that "no one else knows about" (read: where no one will hear you scream if you fall off the cliff because there is no trail for people to walk.)

Haha! oh funny, this bridge is collapsing! 

I know this looks like there's stuff to catch you if you fall, but there's not. It's just some wet slantly rocks that lead to your death. Richard just walked across this tube like it was some sort of normal person sidewalk. I chose the safer/dorkier option and scooted my way across it...

Also not a trail. Just another slippery tube used to bring water into the city.

At least this one had some ropes for the water workers. 

ok but he's right...it was pretty amazing...

We are not people who love hiking as a sport...but we are passionate about nature and we concede that the most amazing places are only accessible by foot. Each nature adventure is a little bit about pushing yourself, a little bit about overcoming fears, a little bit about trusting and helping each other, and a little bit about living in the moment. I like to pretend I'm in some kind of action movie so I feel brave. 

If only I could do the same in that damn car.

Generation Shaming

I started my second year as an English Teaching Assistant this week.  Our orientation was on Tuesday, and it was really interesting to meet and talk with other international wanderers of my age. 20-somethings from Germany, Spain, Ireland, Australia, England, China, Canada, and all over the US bonded over French breakfast pastries and tiny coffees. A few days later, I learned I was not part of the 50 Finalists who sent in video auditions for the "Best Job in the World;" a year of traveling and blogging.

These little moments made me think for the first time about how many wanderers are actually out there...it's not the rarity I kind of thought it was. To me, this revelation is really positive. I feel like it is proof that humanity is evolving...that we are becoming more open and interested in looking outside ourselves, in connecting with other people from other cultures, in making choices based in happiness and love and curiosity.

Then I somehow get lost on the internet and start feeling guilty about everything.

First there was this article about why my generation sucks. We say silly things like "follow your passion" instead of "work hard to build a secure career." We think we are special. And the older version of the article, when I first read it, said that you'll know if you're a narcissistic Gen Y'er (aka millennial) if you have a blog. This is a sentiment even one of my closest friends shared when I told her I was going to start writing mine...assuming I was going to use it as an evil platform to trick the world into paying attention to me.

Then today I stumbled upon this video of a young woman quitting her job by dancing. I didn't find the video particularly inspiring or even very interesting...but what got to me were the comments. (I need to stop reading comments on the internet, honestly. They are never clever, insightful words from someone wise I can learn from. Instead they make me temporarily doubt my hope for humanity. The internet just makes people MEAN!!!)

"You must be both a millennial, unemployed and likely taking the "graduate-school cop-out" on the back on your Baby-Boomer folks. Not only will you become a sheep of the Chinese very soon, but better learn to count without using your fingers. The underclass Chinese use them to eat."

"Yes, you sacrifice your life for a paycheck. That is the deal that we've all agreed to. Why are you whining about it?"

"Stupid Millennial. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD. Encouraging such garbage will not make our society better nor will it help our youth of today who are some of the most greatly misguided, misinformed, immoral and unconscionable people ever to walk the planet."

I'm speechless! The judgement, the blame, the idea that "well I suffered so I'll be damned if you don't have to go through the same hell that I did!!!" And that's what they call life. That's "what we've all agreed to."

Sure, there are some problems with my generation. Why are so many little white boys taking guns to school to murder children? And have you ever seen the horror that is "The Bling Ring?" But I'd like to think that most of my fellow millennials are changing things for the better. We don't blame others for our life choices and the prisons we've put ourselves in...we take responsibility and do something about it.  We do the "real world" when neccesary; we join the Army to pay for college, we wait tables full time to pay for an apartment while in school. But after that...

Why is it laughable to follow your passion? Wouldn't it be better to make sacrifices for a job you actually love? To use your unique "specialness" (we all have it...) to make BIG contributions to your profession, instead of punching a time clock for a paycheck and counting down the days until you die? And this whole illusion of a "secure career" kind of faded for me after the economic crisis when most of my family lost everything they sacrificed their youth to build. Life shouldn't be about suffering until some unknown point in the future. Nothing is secure. There is no future. Things change. And spending our lives focusing on passion, love, and happiness doesn't seem to me like such an appalling sin.

I don't write my blog because I crave attention. I write because it feels good to write and because I like recording the great moments of my life. Like anyone who has ever kept a diary. I put it online because I want to keep my family updated and I live so far away. I know the people who care about me and want to keep in touch will read it too. If there's ever a stranger that wanders to this page, I'd like to hope that maybe we have something in common...fears or questions or hopes and dreams. That we make a connection, no matter where in the world we are.

I am a humanist. I believe that we are evolving. I understand some people have lived their lives suffering and dying inside because that's what they were told life was about. But it isn't, and I don't think the miserable ones should get to force anyone else to have to live that way, just because it's fair.

After all, this is all just a dream, you know? None of it really matters. The jobs, the money you make, the weight loss struggle, the sickness. Not even Obamacare, political affiliation or the New World Order. None of these define who you really are, and none of them leave with you when you die.

Just be happy! Be nice! And try your best, every day.

And to my fellow Generation Y'ers...don't let anyone guilt you into giving up on hope.