Where I live in Mexico, it's luxurious to have a washer and dryer. Hot water is not standard, and it's difficult to keep things functioning.

A layer of dust covers everything, always, and you're not the only being who lives in your house.

Geckos and their chirps, falling from the ceiling onto my face at night. Spiders like your palm, and coordinated ants, carting away anything that's died- sometimes just before they make that happen. Termites eat the walls, and try to make nests in my wardrobe.

There are butterflies to rescue and bees that come in tired crawling on the couch to sting my butt. Flies that touch you how you don't want to be touched and buzzing dragonflies that make the dogs bark.

Once an owl flew in, perched on our beam, and found its way out the back door. We spent the next half hour googling what that "meant".

So no, my house is not my own, and why should it be? They all have the same right to be alive, to be in any place. Just because humans are able to dominate, doesn't mean we should. It also doesn't mean I want a nest in my clothes.

And so I tell them we're roommates and only bother them if they bother me. What a mistake it is to see ourselves as superior when interdependence is what's real.

I let myself squirm, and cringe, and then I deal with it and move on. Ultimately I am grateful not to be living the sterile life. Ignorant of my separation from nature and surrounded by the artificial. Removed from consumeristic pressure, I understand my needs more clearly.

I'm grateful to be living closer to the land, closer to what's real.  Even if that means days without water in the taps and more frequent illness. Occupied with simplicity, I see my place in the world more clearly. I am amongst, not above.

Living in Mexico has been humbling.

What a gift to my growth witnessing my arrogance is.

#interdependence #simplicity #breakingdowntheego #gringadiaries #mexico