Visiting from Venus

I missed a couple posts and I feel so guilty about it. I haven’t missed a post in 10 years, not since I lived in the forest in Humboldt, California without internet.

Life in Mexico City is crazy, there is no other way to say it. When you live here, the character of the city seeps into your being and molds you in vibrant, exciting ways. I have been here for 2 years now and really never could have anticipated all of the things that would happen, all of the things that I would see and feel.

People always ask where I’m from. I say that I’m gringa but the more accurate response is that I’m visiting from Venus. I’ve never felt human and I certainly don’t identify with any human nation, especially not the one in which I was born.

There are so many things I could say about living in Mexico City as a white person and what that journey has been like. What continues to be most important is humility and respect. Mexicans want foreigners who move here to adapt to their culture, not to have neocolonial English-speaking culture continuously forced upon them. Foreigners need to learn español and practice speaking it. They need to make friends and community outside of the gringo (or French) bubble. They need to learn about Mexican history and culture in a way that is genuine and empathetic.

This learning process is my every waking moment. In the last couple years I have taught myself a new language and learned how to navigate one of the largest cities in the world.

I’m not the same person that I was before. I don’t think in the same way. Maybe it feels more accurate now to say the truth, that I’m visiting from Venus, because I am mysteriously moving closer to the core of who I am by living in and adapting to this volcanic city. Somehow being this far from where I was born and living a completely different life in a huge, uncomfortable, amazing city is, paradoxically, comfortable and familiar. Maybe the strangeness and the newness reminds me of being an alien, visiting from a different planet. Maybe this is exactly who I am, an interplanetary traveler who can mold and adapt to any place with humility and respect. Those who come from Venus are gentle. We are sensitive, appreciative of beauty. We are companions, lovers.

Taurus Season has reawakened so much in me already. My birthday is May 17, by the way, for those who want to send me loving messages. I feel juicy and sexy and delicious again. Just a few months ago I exited an extremely toxic, abusive relationship. I lost myself completely inside the addiction of that relationship and I am so fucking glad that I’m back now, babes.

My heart and mind are full of many things these days. When I really consider the landscape, I feel so proud of myself. My wool felting art, for example, has taken on its own life. Every weekend I go to bazares to sell my work and meet new people. I feel for the first time that I am part of an artist community here.

I would like to begin writing and sharing more from my personal life. Today I just want to drop a quick note, but I feel something percolating in my spirit so I will return again soon with more observations from the land of volcanos. Whether it is to simply entertain or inspire with my idle thoughts, I am happy to serve however I can during my time here on planet Earth 👽

Los quiero mucho <3

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