Back to the Real World (hmmm........)

Costa Rica was absolutely amazing.... the only thing missing from this vacation was having our daughter Molly with us. I know she would have loved it as much as we did. I remember thinking about life back in the states and realizing that some of us are so compartmentalized in our lives.... kinda do the same things day after day. Not to say that the natives of Costa Rica don't do the same things, but it seems like the things they do don't involve trying to make enough money to help pay down their debts or living from paycheck to paycheck, stressing about the possibility of losing their job or about losing more money in the stock market or thinking about their diminishing 401K programs. No, their lives are not as complicated as ours.... they don't consume as much as we do. They live simply, enjoying the small but meaningful things in life like family, friends, community. At least in Nosara, where we spent last week, most people don't even own TV's. I must say, not having a TV all week was heaven. We actually spent the small amount of time after dinner and before bed ~ talking! Yes, talking.... like I remember doing with my family in the early-mid 60's (we had a TV then but the channels were limited and dad didn't like us watching too much TV).

I know we talk a lot about healthy foods in our blogs -- well, after all, that does translate into healthy "everything else!" But, since traveling to Costa Rica, I've been thinking about health in terms of modern technology. I realize that people in Costa Rica (at least in Nosara) are not walking around with cell phones and are not sitting sipping coffee while working on their laptops. I did see many laptops, but they were perched in front of the tourists. Not a surprise.... Oh, yeah, so ~ getting back to health, do you ever wonder the long term effects of cell phone use, computer use, TV's, Ipods, power lines, microwaves, and on and on.....? I have! I think we all need to do some soul searching to decide how much we're hooked up and if we can limit some of the exposure to different forms of radiation. It's so easy and addicting to stay connected electronically, but kinda sad too. We'd be much better off with face-to-face conversations, actually talking out loud to not just friends but family as well. I feel we've lost something in the race to be technologically advanced. I felt this in Costa Rica where I envied the human connectedness, the human contact. It feels really 'healthy' to be connected in a real, personal and physical way to people in our lives. Isolation and alienation is not healthy when it comes to relationships. As I always say, health is what we feed ourselves -- whether that's good wholesome food or nourishing relationships that move and inspire us. Costa Rica was inspiring as well as amazingly lush and genuinely simple.