One of the amazing things about having a multi-year blog is that it remembers things I’ve forgotten. In 2014, I planned a six-week trip to Mexico, a plan which self-destructed at the beginning of week 4 when I wound up in a place I didn’t want to be. The plan had sounded good … 3 weeks studying Spanish and exploring the famous art town of San Miguel de Allende, 2 weeks on the Mexican Riviera with beautiful beaches, cenotes, and pyramids, followed by a final week in Merida where a story called to me.
It all went awry when I stepped off the bus in Playa del Carmen: hot, chaotic and cater-to-the-gringos touristy. The apartment I had rented for two weeks was charmless. I thought maybe a walk through the center to the beach would help. It didn’t. I struggled with a decision of whether to stay of go, since I tend to be a stick-it-out type. However, a friend weighed in by email and said "we've sucked it up enough, get out of there!"
That was all the permission I needed and within hours of googling possibilities and accepting the reality of the money I was about to lose by abandoning this rental, plans were finalized to go to a place I’d never heard of … San Cristóbal de Las Casas, in the highlands state of Chiapas … a place I promptly fell in love with.
What I had forgotten about those times was how my plans changed from being there for 2 weeks to being there for four months. That memory was refreshed by a blog post.
October 4, 2014 - Learning to be an accidental (in San Cristóbal de las Casas)
At this point, while I was enjoying San Cristóbal, I was still on my original schedule of spending a week in Merida and then flying back to California. Then I met a woman traveler from the US who was thinking about renting half a hacienda and started talking about sharing the space. I was also progressing so slowly with Spanish that it was clear I was going to need much more time if I wanted to get anywhere close to conversational. (Spoiler: I didn’t get there.) I began to contemplate staying longer.
While the shared space idea didn’t work out and my new friend had decided to move on, I realized I was perfectly happy in the space I was already in and there was no reason I needed to leave. So I stayed for another three months.
In this blog post I wrote about the flower above:
Yesterday I found the tiny flower growing in a gravel walkway.
It's not in the "right" place, but it's doing fine. Maybe I should learn from it.
And, maybe I did learn. For the past nine years, I’ve lived a rather accidental life, one I could not have planned or expected but which has brought me a great deal of joy and growth. Like that flower above, I’ve grown resilient, capable of flourishing almost anywhere.
What’s your Substack goal for 2024? You might want to include a Substack retreat as part of the coming year.
For those of us who are trying to build our Substacks into a reliable creative and financial enterprise … the Spirit of Substack could change everything.
Spirit of Substack is a one-year project support system focused on your Substack goal(s) for 2024. Whether your goal is for new subscribers, paid subscribers, an agent or completion of a new book, or diving deeper into your creative writing processes, wouldn’t it be great if you had support of other Substackers on the journey? (PS …
at Writers at Work has a workshop on setting goals that is open to all of her paid subscribers. It’s a great place to start thinking about what you want to create in 2024.)
Spirit of Substack is for Substackers committed to building their own Substack success and supporting other stackers, through monthly zoom meetings and chats, with the option of an incredible, self-guided, transformational retreat time … get a glimpse of one possible retreat space by clicking here.
Bela’s place is that magical blend of privacy and communal connection … with only 6 bedrooms and a lovely garden breakfast room that invites conversation. Bela’s is in the center of this highly diverse, creative, and walkable, small city. . I’m planning to return to San Cristóbal de las Casas for my own retreat from mid-March to mid-May next year and would love to see you there and talk Substack. If you go for a minimum of 5 nights, Bela is offering a Substacker discount.
The Spirit of Substack support system will be limited to members with 2,000 or fewer subscribers. We will set objectives for 2024 and, through a monthly zoom call and chat, we will focus on helping each other succeed and celebrate our wins along the way. The intent is for us to actively support and build success for all of us and I will be available by email to each of you.
Planning a Substack retreat for yourself could be an import part of jump starting your Substack success. While you could do a retreat anywhere and any time … Bela’s place is my idea of a great, relatively inexpensive, possibility in a uniquely beautiful place. If not there, pick a place that feeds your spirit. I will be sharing more information about creative retreats throughout 2024.
Let’s make 2024 a breakthrough success year for all of us. joyce
Your photos bring back pleasant memories of Mexico!
Wow what stunning photos of the accidental life