On the brevity and beauty of life..and the beach

Shoot, I'm one day late! Therefore, this post will be hurriedly written--apologies for the scatter-brained manner in which I shall write.

I've been keeping up the routine of getting out of Quito on the weekends and this time it was a little trip to the beach with some friends! (the same people with whom I ran the 10K)

With Jillian, Luis, and Pablo--on our way to la Isla del Amor! (Thanks to Jillian, for the photo)
There are more on Facebook.

We had planned to go to Isla de la Plata--an island in the Pacific (the poor man's Galapagos)--but, of course, bus tickets were sold out. Therefore, we piled into a friend's car at midnight and drove the six hours on mountainous roads to the beach at Pedernales, which is the nearest beach. It was wonderfully refreshing to leave behind the bus exhaust and constant honking and whistles and lesson planning for a brief break. I loved strolling barefoot on the sand with nothing to hear but the salty wind and constant waves! We played Risk, napped on the beach, ate great seafood and bolónes (fried balls of mashed green plaintain with cheese, veggies and/or seafood inside) etc. Aside from the lack of sleep Friday night (the roads here make me so miserably sick to my stomach) it was a swell weekend!

Teaching is continuing to go well, and I hope I am improving. Because it is all new to me, I'm learning as I go--and all of my ideas for improvement are in retrospect. For the students' sake, I wish I were perfect...but, they seem happy enough. And as I literally just finished grading their exams today, I am pleased to say the class averages are not too shabby. Still, in the next cycle of teaching, I know I will be better prepared!

I am getting accustomed to my daily schedule and I so enjoy having time to organize my life, shop for food, cook said food, have friends over for movies, meals, and games, carve out time for reading, and especially, for daily Mass. The church I found last week, Iglesia de Santo Tomás Aquino, has Mass in the mornings at 7 and 8. I am so glad! Today I calculated the walk: it takes about 15 minutes to get there at a rapid pace and 10 or 12 to get back. It's a drastic uphill climb there, so I arrive fairly winded. It's worth every step, though. And every day I challenge myself physically at this altitude is a small victory--I cannot wait to run back at sea level! It's going to be the easiest thing ever.

I haven't been here for quite a month...and yet, I feel grounded and well-connected. Amidst the myriad blessings like that, I can't help but remember my utter transience. I mean in both the grand scheme of things, of course, and in my time in Ecuador. We're but a mist, and here in Quito, I'm like a molecule of a droplet of mist. I'm only spending one brief year of my life here! (As far as I know, of course. Everyone does say "but what if you fall in love?"...not planning on it, people. I am going to be 100% rational all of the time...ha. ha.)

If I get too caught up thinking about the brevity of life--I can be robotic and rational, surprise, surprise--I question the value of making friends, investing myself here, etc. Then, I realize I'm an imbecile...and I immediately invite people over to my house to feed them delicious food and continue cultivating our relationships. Each day is an opportunity to strive toward perfecting myself to God's glory and to the greater, purer enjoyment of this life. If the friends I make and the situations I face aid me in that--wonderful! And more than viewing them as mere opportunities to better myself, each person is a marvelous creation and adds a facet of the Creator's beauty to my life. I only hope I can pour out some love into their lives.

Maybe I will share a lot of myself with friends here. Maybe I will learn a great deal about their joys, sorrows, and aspirations. And maybe we will be in contact for only 1/80 of my life--but if we share just a bit of life's truth, beauty, and goodness, then that one-eightieth is of infinite value.


And now, off I go to talk with twelve souls about the good, the true, the beautiful, and English!


Also, I wish this made as much sense as I wanted it to. Alas, make of it what you will.