Today is the one month anniversary of the first time I stepped onto Costa Rican soil and my life began anew.

 

Looking back on it, it was such an easy transition, thanks to the support network that chaperoned me while I was in the States (Margaret Aliff, the Rainbow Refuge gang, Jon Graham Mitchell, realtor Brooke Bishop) and that embraced me wholeheartedly upon arrival.

Dale, Clarkie, Melaney, Laurie at Rainbow Refuge at Villas Escondidas

Dani and Georgia

 

Jon, Dale, Francisco my feria buds and Costa Rica family

(absent: Clarkie Mullen and all of the above!)

 

I feel like I’ve been here forever. It feels that familiar (“family-ier”) and closeknit. (The way families are supposed to be but aren’t always.)

 

I feel settled here.

 

Have since almost the first day, but especially since getting my own place and unpacking.

 

I don’t miss having a vehicle at all

 

Heck, you couldn’t pay me enough to drive in Costa Rica! I’m glad there are people here who love driving like Steve McQueen or Evel Knievel but in mostly slow motion. It looks hair-raising to me! LOL! (I still need to capture it in a video so you can “get” this paragraph in a visceral way!)

 

I haven’t had a single leg cramp since arriving.

 

Leg cramps were all too frequent in Tacoma. Whatever change I’ve made in my diet has utterly eliminated them down here.

 

My skin, hair and nails are in better shape than they’ve been in years

 

I don’t worry about getting around on my own with as little fluency in Spanish as I currently have because I’m learning fast and because Ticos are perfectly willing to linger with me a little longer when I have to consult a translation app while I type in and then read what I want or need to say to them.  (I could make my translation apps speak for me and then translate the Tico’s response back into English, but I wouldn’t learn as fast as I want to that way.  I want to learn Spanish, not just get it translated by AI!)

 

I’m still awed by the natural surroundings here

 

I hope that never goes away.  Costa Rica is an ecological gem and wonder.

 

The very thought that I can go hang out with a slew of iguanas every weekend if I want to thrills me to my toes. I’m sure there are other places where I can hang with other CR critters, too.  I want to find those places and take lots of pictures.

 

I’ve only just begun this adventure, but I can unequivocally state that it’s among the best decisions I’ve ever made. The others were taking the frightening multiple risks of driving — as a fledgling driver — to Wenatchee from Cle Elum to see (and surprisingly even meet) DeForest Kelley in a parade, moving to Sacramento to work for the Animal Protection Institute for four years, moving to Hollywood to work in the entertainment industry for 14 years, hanging my shingle as a professional writer in 2007, and owning my trans-ness a dozen years ago. In each of these cases it was “damn the torpedoes — full speed ahead!”

 

Moral of the story:

each and every one of my happiest outcomes happened

only after I decided I wouldn’t let fear stop me

from reaching them.

 

I have never been fearless.  I have just never let fear eternally stop me from getting where I wanted to go.

 

And, by golly, so far everything that has resulted from taking a risk and pursuing the life I’ve always imagined has been BEYOND AMAZING!

 

So, take it from me: 

Go out on a limb —

 

That’s where the fruit is!