World Beginnings

Once a cousin told me “Susan, your life is like a roller coaster but I am happy on my merry-go-round”. What a great metaphor for life! The Lake Chapala area of Mexico is home to over 10,000 ex-patriots and it is said there are four women to every man. One of the popular sayings here is that the men are looking for a “nurse with a purse” and while there are many women up for that role, I really don’t know any of them. Life here can be much like a crazy ride as people learn to navigate a different country, culture, and laws; although, some will argue there are no laws. So, no surprise to hear the incredible life stories of the women who show up here with their lives in three suitcases and others with a complete house in tow. One quality we share is a sense of adventure and rather than fearing the horse will bolt from the merry-go-round, we grab the safety bar on the scariest ride and get ready to scream. As this dark, sad year draws to a close,   friends are moving on and discovering...

Haircuts! The bane of her teenaged years! Hours spent pouring over sleek images of singers and stars with beautifully coiffed locks. Magazines with detailed diagrams of how to make a perfect pin curl and just where to place them to achieve that special look. And then came brush rollers, again with detailed instructions on how to have the perfect flip or sleek page boy. Nights learning to sleep with gazillions of pricks on the head with imperfect results. She well knew the long lasting results of a perm gone wrong. And just in time for school pictures. Hideous. Or hair that went limp on the most important day of her life, necessitating a frantic call to the salon for an emergency appointment. Hair. Who said it was a woman’s crowning glory? Searching in vain for the stylist who understood Her hair. She was convinced that women hairdressers were out to sabotage their unwitting clients, after all, wasn’t it a woman who made her look like Dolly Parton? That is what he said, wit...