Sunday 17 th April 2022…have a special day!!

I think this sums up every thing for today!!

Stay safe and healthy!!

yashi Kochi!!

Saturday 16th April 2022…Wonders of the world!!

 Mother Nature astounds me once again in San Miguel….best wishes stay safe and healthy!!!

Yashi Kochi!!

Friday 15 th April 2022…it was a Good Friday!!

 Time for a hike!!!

I went off this morning to another one of my favorites….

It was shocking to me to see the change in the Pressa since I was here about six months ago….

All the green invasive Lillie’s in the water and also how high the level of the water….

The photos with the red dot in the corner were taken six months ago and the differences are totally amazing…..

this photo taken through the bridge with the building in the back ground

 is now totally submerged and the photo today with the two small white rocks sticking out is the top of that same building!,

This is the building..

And today!!!

This afternoon I met with my lovely young student Vanessa and she told me that her mother had put together five bags of clothes from her children that she wanted to donate so we went to her house and picked them up, how sweet!!

After two years of not going to the gym I have finally hired a personal trainer and I go to her house twice a week, she has a fully equipped home gym, Jessica is very dedicated and hard on me and I do not enjoy the sessions but on the drive home I am always happy that I went!!

Found a great new show on Brit Box a police drama…

Stay safe and healthy!!

Yashi Kochi!!!

Sorry I do not know how they came to be below!! 

Thursday 14 th April 2022……..the trees!!

The Jacaranda trees seem to be blooming longer this year I do really like them they

add so much color to the streets and sidewalks….

The town is really busy with tourists for the Easter celebrations probably the biggest gatherings of the year…a good time to stay out of centro…..

Stay safe and healthy!!

Yashi Kochi!! 

Wednesday 13 th April 2022…little problem!!

 Blaze had a little problem this morning I must have gone over something but managed to shred one of my tires…

Took it in and one hour later back on the road with two new tires……

Won another 150 pesos at ♣️ ♥️  ♦️ 

Now going to watch a soccer game from England!!

I love this!!!

Living the Four Agreements: A life changing Journey

In the best selling book The Four Agreements don Miguel Ruiz gives four principles to practice in order to create love and happiness in your life. Adopting and committing to these agreements is simple. Actually living and keeping these Four Agreements can  be one of the hardest things  you will ever do. It can also be one of the most life changing things you will ever do.

As you practice living these four practices your life will dramatically change. In the beginning these new habits will be challenging and you will lapse countless times. With practice these agreements become integrated into your being and every area of your life and become easy habits to keep.

The Four Agreements are:

1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Understanding how to Integrate and Live the practices

Upon reading don Miguel’s wisdom many people have their eyes opened to a new possibility for living life. They get excited when they see the potential for happiness, love, and respect with themselves and their relationships. What they fail to see is the challenges and resistance the mind will have to living just one of the agreements. Don Miguel briefly mentions these challenges in his book, but people fixate on the four chapters with the agreements and seem to miss these other important points. This is often the set up for expectations that lead to disappointment and frustration.

Domestication

During our early life we began making agreements. Our parents rewarded us when we did what they wanted and they punished us when we didn’t. We also learned behaviors and habits in school, church, and from other adults and children on the playground. The tools of reward and punishment were often emotional and sometimes physical. The impact of other people’s opinions and reactions to us became a very strong force in the habits we created. In this process we created agreements in our mind of who we should be, what we shouldn’t be, who we were, and who we were not. Over time we learned to live our life based on the agreements in our own mind. We learned to live according to the agreements that came from the opinion of others. In this process of domestication it turns out that the choices we make and the life we live is more driven by the opinions we learned from others than one we would choose on our own.

Why Living the Four Agreements Is Such a Challenge

We have out of years of habit not paid attention to how we express our self. The responses that come out of our mouth are often automatic. They were learned from years of habit living by the agreements we learned. We do not consciously choose our words, or the emotion, tone, and attitude that we express.

Over years our mind has filled with beliefs that generate incessant thinking. In all that thinking we have many assumptions that we are not aware of. We even make the assumption that what we think is true. We imagine and assume what others think of us and how they will react. We also assume that the judgments and self criticisms we have are true. We have learned to make so many assumptions that we aren’t aware of. These assumptions are not the truth. These assumptions and the faith we express in them is just one way that we are not impeccable with our word.

Through our domestication we have also learned to take things personally. We assume that when someone has an opinion about us that their opinion is valid.  Their opinion becomes our belief about our self.   We end up having an emotional reaction to our own belief because  we assumed their opinion it is true.   We can also take personally our own opinions. We take personally our own self judgments. These self judgments are nothing more than an assumption. Over years the mind has developed many habits of making assumptions and taking them personally.

Stay safe and healthy!!

Yashi Kochi!!

Tuesday 12 th April 2022…..slow day!,

 Frida is still at doggie day care camp till next Monday, I do miss her our walks and chats!!!!

i think this is neat!!!

Stay safe and healthy!!!

Yashi Kochi!!

Monday 11 th April 2022….coming up soon!!

 It is only four weeks now till I take the bus to Mexico City and then my British airways flight to London!!

It has been four years since I saw my family so long overdue as covid cancelled my flights back home two years ago!!

Staying  for a month and just be close to family and friends……

Stay safe and healthy!!

Yashi Kochi!!

Sunday 10 th April 2022…a day to relax!!

 Today was my day to relax and take it easy and I did not much of anything..

I did watch a great soccer game from England…..

This afternoon I could hear loud drums so went to investigate and found the source at the San Antonio church which is where I play tennis…

So many celebrations today and it will be the same all through the week leading to Easter Sunday next week..

Hope you all had a great weekend, stay safe and healthy!!

Yashi Kochi!!

Saturday 9 th April 2022….some history!!!

 A few days ago someone advertised on the civil,list here in San Miguel they they had a piece of the Berlin Wall to give away.

I have no connection to the wall but I do have some special rocks in my casita, so I responded and I was the first one to do so and now I have a small piece of this wall on my night stand!!!

Why the Berlin Wall rose—and how it fell

The ugly symbol of the Cold War was built to keep East Germans from escaping to the West. A decades-long fight to flee brought it down.

For nearly 30 years, Berlin was divided not just by ideology, but by a concrete barrier that snaked through the city, serving as an ugly symbol of the Cold War. Erected in haste and torn down in protest, the Berlin Wall was almost 27 miles long and was protected with barbed wire, attack dogs, and 55,000 landmines. But though the wall stood between 1961 and 1989, it could not survive a massive democratic movement that ended up bringing down the the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) and spurring on the Cold War’s end.

The wall had its origins in the end of World War II, when Germany was carved into four piecesand occupied by Allied powers. Although Berlin was located about 90 miles east from the border between the GDR and West Germany and completely surrounded by the Soviet sector, the city was also originally divided into four quarters, but by 1947 was consolidated into east and west zones.

In 1949, the two new Germanies were officially founded. Socialist East Germany was wracked by poverty and convulsed by labor strikes in response to its new political and economic systems. The brain drain and worker shortage that resulted prompted the GDR to close its border with West Germany in 1952, making it much harder for people to cross from “Communist” to “free” Europe. 

East Germans began fleeing through the more permeable border between East and West Berlin instead. At one point, 1,700 people a day sought refugee status by crossing from East to West Berlin, and about 3 million GDR citizens went to West Germany through the via West Berlin between 1949 and 1961.

In the wee hours of August 13, 1961, as Berliners slept, the GDR began building fences and barriers to seal off entry points from East Berlin into the western part of the city. The overnight move stunned Germans on both sides of the new border. As GDR soldiers patrolled the demarcation line and laborers began constructing a concrete wall, diplomatic officials and the militaries of both sides engaged in a series of tense standoffs.

The Berlin Wall stretched for almost 27 miles across the city and employed landmines, dogs, and barbed wire to discourage escape attempts. Still, over 5,000 people managed to reach western Europe.

Eventually, East Germany erected 27 miles of concrete wall through the city. The Wall was actually two parallel walls punctuated with guard towers and separated by the “death strip,” which included guard dog runs, landmines, barbed wire, and various obstacles designed to prevent escape. East German soldiers monitored the barriers 24/7, conducted surveillance on West Berlin, and had shoot-to-kill orders should they spot an escapee.

People did try to escape. Initially, they fled from houses right along the Wall; later, those houses were emptied and turned into fortifications for the Wall itself. Others plotted riskier escapes through tunnels, on hot air balloons, and even via train. Between 1961 and 1989, over 5,000 people made successful escapes. Others were not so lucky; at least 140 were killed or died while trying to cross the Wall.

Over the years, the Wall became a grim symbol of the Cold War. By 1989, many East Germans had had enough. They staged a series of mass demonstrations demanding democracy. Meanwhile, the Soviet bloc was destabilized by economic woes and political reforms. 

On the night of November 9, 1989, East Berlin party official Günter Schabowski announcedupcoming travel reforms in response to the protests, but botched the message so badly it sounded as if the GDR had in fact opened its borders. Thousands of East Berliners flooded toward border crossings along the Wall, where confused guards eventually opened

As East Berliners pushed through, tens of thousands of West Berliners met them in a massive outpouring of emotion and celebration. As they celebrated with champagne, music, and tears, Berliners began to literally tear down the wall with sledgehammers and chisels. Less than a month later, the GDR collapsed entirely, and in 1990, Germany reunified.

The Soviet Union followed suit, and today the fall of the Berlin Wall is seen as a symbol of the end of the Cold War. Today, a double row of cobblestones marks the place where the wall once stood.

Stay safe and healthy!!

Yashi Kochi!!