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Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see.”
― John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

As we have done for the past many years, the theme of our January issue falls in line with the Chinese New Year which this year is The Year of the Dragon. This logic may seem a bit silly but was fine when we had the year of the chicken, the pig and the ox, but dragons? “Dragons are for children’s stories”, I mused to myself, “a gateway animal to the study of dinosaurs and keeping snakes as pets.”

I was intrigued to see how our writers would navigate this theme and I was contemplating this as a majestic gold-colored iguana made its way across the road.

The truth is that fairy tales and mythological creatures are born from something real. The iguana with its golden tail swinging from side to side, the jagged edges of soft spine that run from the head down to the tail, and the long thin toes with protruding claws, is fantastical. If we look at everyday things with new eyes, we realize that our world is as full of wonder and magic as any fairy tale or Harry Potter book. The world we live in is full of many beasts and creatures and happenings that are wondrous.

As we slide into 2024, let us remember to look upon our world with wonderment. Be amazed by the night sky full of stars and the creeping awakening of the morning light. Talk to insects and take a moment to see the way the vultures and pelicans dance through the air. Let your fingers caress the bark of a tree and think about all the tree has been present for in its unmoving stillness. Magic is everywhere. One of the saddest things that happens as we grow up is that we are encouraged to move away from looking at the world in a whimsical way and yet it is looking at it in this way that joy is most readily available to us.

Let go of practical things that are weighing you down and allow yourself to be kissed by the breeze, at least for a little while.

See you next month,

Jane

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“To a dull mind all of nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love all the stories: mythological, religious and especially the fairy tales. I was raised in a practical family that eschewed the dogma of religion and anything New Age. Myths were in a separate category- not based on reality, but as an interpretation of the world. When people used to ask if I was religious I would answer that “I hadn’t been given the gift of faith.”

Secretly I wanted to believe in everything. I’ve explored every avenue of religion and spirituality that has come my way. I’ve attended dozens of bar mitzvahs and seders. I’ve gone to Unitarian services and confessed at Notre Dame in Paris. I’ve celebrated the Virgen of Guadalupe and participated in a puja on the bank of the Ganges in India. Psychedelics with a shaman, ten-day silent meditation retreats, sessions with a channeler, past-life regression hypnotism? Sign me up! Am I religious? I am multi-religious and multi-spiritual – I believe everything is possible.

I find inspiration in the transcendentalists, for whom Nature was the true cathedral. I always find a walk in the forest or a sunrise on the ocean to be the perfect thing when I need to be reminded of the beauty and magic of this world. The dance of fireflies, the ballet of hummingbirds, the snake hanging out around my house – I consider all of it sacred. One day a large black moth followed me around my office. flitting from my computer to perching on my shoulder, over a period of several days. When I got home there was another by my kitchen door and he followed me around my house for hours. I don’t know what it meant, but it felt like a blessing, a positive omen. Myth and religion are our way to explain what we cannot grasp – the world is full of invisible forces. Life is much more enjoyable when we can find wonder in the mundane, even Shakespeare wrote of fairies.

This month our writers explore the intersection of myth and folklore and religion. Mexico is the ideal environment to suspend your disbelief and see where it leads you.

See you in November,

Jane