“The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time… to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills.” ~Phillip Connors:
¡Pura Vida!
“The Hills”
“A longing fulfilled . . .”
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” ~Proverbs 13:12
Arenal Volcano National Park, Alajuela, Costa Rica
My blog/website administrative page has a bucket for “Drafts” and occasionally I put something in there that I think I might work into a blog post later (like yesterday’s). Back in 2022 I placed the above quote from Proverbs that I picked from one of my Daily Bible Readings to comment on later and here I am, about 3 years later, commenting on it (with photos!). 🙂
Continue reading ““A longing fulfilled . . .””Merry Christmas!
I’m on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica today and this photo was made on the opposite side of the country on the Caribbean Sea Coast in 2021 at sunrise. This greeting card photo was one of several I created that year and did not use, but I like it and decided to share today. Tonight maybe I will share a sunset photo IF the weather cooperates! 🙂 HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS DAY!
¡Feliz Navidad! or Merry Christmas!
¡Pura Vida!
Merry Christmas!
Hoping you will have a happy December as I expect mine to be. I will be slowing down with only 3 doctor appointments! 🙂 My health is doing well with mostly the wonderful public health system here in Costa Rica, an ultra sound scan every 6 months showing me cancer free, a monthly nurse visit to my house, checking on me and data on my CPAP machine, and just a month ago I got new hearing aids compliments of the Cost Rica Social Security! Life is good in Costa Rica! 🙂
Continue reading “Merry Christmas!”Living in the Green
I live on a green hill that is surrounded by more green hills beyond the little Atenas Valley. And the housing development that I live in is called “Residencial Roca Verde” which in English is “Residential Green Rock.” And the second photo below is of some of the green rocks just inside our entrance gate that gave the place its name. 🙂 But mostly mossy green during rainy season and losing their color by the end of dry season or becoming brown rocks. 🙂 All possibly symbolic of “Living Green!”
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi
That is what one man said about “living green.” Hopefully the world will learn to trade its greed for the green! I’m thankful that I live in a “green-thinking” country, even though Costa Rica has not “arrived” yet, it is headed in the right direction with such things as 99.9% of our electricity renewable (hydro, volcanic, solar & wind) plus 25-35% of our forests are protected as reserves or parks.
“Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man.”
— Stewart Udall
¡Pura Vida!
Green Pastures
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures” (Psalm 23).
I thank God daily for allowing me to live in a peaceful place surrounded by nature and the great outdoors with unlimited aspects of nature to photograph. Praise God from who all blessings flow!
“How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures”. ~Psalm 104:24
And of course I have a Cows Gallery of my photos from all over Costa Rica. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
“The Woods”
More than 25% of Costa Rica’s forests and land is protected by the government in official National Parks, Wildlife Refuges and Biological Reserves. On top of that there are many “private reserves” that some people say brings the protected percentage closer to 30% but no data on that. And according to Google’s AI:
“With over 615 wildlife species per 10,000 sq km, Costa Rica sits atop of the list as the most bio-diverse region of the world.”
¡Pura Vida!
Flowing through us . . . + Another Healthcare Adventure
¡Pura Vida!
My Latest Public Healthcare Adventure
I now wear hearing aids – a very high quality, made in Denmark. My ENT (with free public healthcare) who is monitoring my head and neck for any possible resurgence of that cancer removed in 2021, also now takes good care of my ears, nose and throat, his specialty. 🙂 When I told him that I could not hear much, if anything, with my left ear, he gave me a hearing test that showed it was sure enough not functioning well and in the process learned that even my right ear was not functioning as good as it could. Radiation Therapy could have possibly caused this, “but don’t worry, we’ll fix it!”
This week I started wearing a hearing aid in each ear, adjusted to fit my needs through the audiologist’s laptop computer. (Everything is computer-related now!) I even have the option of getting the software for my cell phone so I can adjust the volume, etc. myself on my own electronically. I decided to wait a little while before I jump into that technology. 🙂 I seem to stay overwhelmed by technology every day.
The public health hospitals don’t now have audiologists, so they pay a private practice audiologist right here in Atenas to order the hearing aids, fit them to my particular needs (each ear separately). For now I will be seeing him once a month until everything is working smoothly for my hearing and then as often as needed, plus I have his personal phone number I can call any time. And none of this has (or will ever) cost me a penny, thanks to the forward thinking government of Costa Rica.
And I really like the Tico young man who is my audiologist, Leiner Rodriquez, who tried to explain away his German first name as something his mother just liked at that time! 🙂 I look forward to working with him to hear better! It seems like every day I have another reason to be glad that I moved to Cost Rica. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Charlie in Costa Rica & King Charles in Transylvania
Today’s article in The Washington Post titled England’s King Charles III lives another, slower life in Transylvania (Linked, but sometimes papers don’t allow non-subscribers to read, which is stupid!). But anyway, it reminded me of the “Nature Escape” I found in Costa Rica. 🙂 Transylvania, Romania has remained undeveloped with a high respect for “wildness” and has one of the highest species counts of wildlife and plants left anywhere in Europe! (Of course not near as many species as Costa Rica!) 🙂 But both Charles’s have the right idea! 🙂 The tranquility of nature is the best way to live one’s life, especially in our fading years!
If you cannot get in The Washington Post article linked above, you might be interested in this older online article: Nature, Tradition & Privacy. And of course YouTube has videos:
It is just two minutes, saying why he likes the little village in Romania, while the next one below is a longer 18 minute video from the Royal Family giving more details of the village . . .
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks” – John Muir
¡Pura Vida!
¡Feliz Pascua! Happy Easter!
A few people in Costa Rica went to church every day this past Week, Semana Santa (Holy Week), with a special resurrection day spiritual emphasis each day. But factory and office workers across the country had the week off from work and with school out all week also, even more people in Costa Rica headed for the beaches or mountains, with all hotels filled and many beaches lined with camping tents, the only place to camp in Costa Rica safe from poisonous snakes. Easter Week & Christmas Week are the two biggest vacation & travel weeks for Ticos! Retail businesses and restaurants will usually be open part of the week, but traditionally everything is closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, though they are getting more Americanized here and thus more and more things are open those days too. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
¡Feliz Pascua!
Happy Easter!
He is Risen!