Today is my two-year anniversary of writing Nica Nuggets! And today I am writing Nica Nugget number 100!
That’s 50 per year. Had I written four more, I would have averaged one per week over the past two years.
As it is, I’ve found that I’m not that regular. There are times when I’m truly inspired, like during rainy season when the beauty here is overwhelming. The dry season, I’ve found, tends to dry my creative juices up too.
My subject matter has also fluctuated. Now, during the pandemic, I’m restricting my contact with people, so I’m not meeting new people, nor going into new stores or restaurants and introducing you to them. Nor am I traveling.
For the past four and a half months I have gotten everywhere I’ve needed to go on foot. Not once have I been in a vehicle, nor on a bicycle or a horse.
And being that I live in the jungle by the sea, nature is up and center, as it usually, preferably is for me anyway.
So, what has happened in two years?
We had the incredible lull after all of the tourists disappeared and resorts and businesses shut down after the unrest of April 2018.
We had the beginning of the grand comeback in 2019 when international backpackers started showing up again. New restaurants opened. Businesses started to expand.
Then the pandemic shut the whole world down. Borders closed. Planes stopped flying. And a hush descended over the earth.
We are in that hush now. Some of us are hungry. Some of us are bored. Some of us are sick and dying or have buried a loved one or two. Some of us are getting creative, forming new friendships, trying out something new. Adapting. Growing. Changing. Noticing.
I saw my 9-year-old friend Denisse today. In two years she’s grown up a lot. You can tell by her size and her appearance.
I also saw an injured grasshopper today. Its size and appearance changed within a split second.
Change is like that: sometimes gradual and sometimes quick. Pictures help us to see the gradual changes. Pictures help us also just to see: to focus, to capture, to hold, to witness.
I write my Nica Nuggets as a way for me to see, to look closer, to hold and to share. To say to myself and then to you: “Look at this!”
My one guiding principle is to always share from a place of love.
Thank you for letting me share my love with you.
