Memoirs from the Winged Life...

It was another magical day in Mexico...I headed out for my daily sojourn to the beach...it’s deserted, the beach club is closed. I ask what’s going on, they tell me the Tsunami is supposed to hit at 1:30pm...it was 1pm.  I headed to the beach, unfazed...the sea was a little raucous, tide coming in further than I had seen before.  I have the beach virtually to myself with the exception of a few on lookers from the road and adventurous stragglers like myself.

I consider my own mortality...what if...what if it really comes...what if today were my day...what would I do?  What would I regret not having done?  What would I do differently?  I ponder this not in a panicked way but in an eerily peaceful way as i slowly walk down the empty, sub-lime coast line.  

It’s day 10 of my master-cleanse...feeling good, a little weak...I decided if I saw the pastry man, I would use my pesos to buy something yummy...after-all, this could be my last hours.  He magically appears, as if the thought itself had summoned him from the ethers. Instead of my usual banana muffin, I decide to go all out...10 days without food is a long time...the vanilla creme-filled donut calls to me.  “I’ll take one of those, porfavor...” I savor each morsel asIi continue my walk along the coast...wishing I had chosen the muffin...turns out, I prefer it...who knew...

It’s 1:30, I decide to play in the water...I’m doing my usual hands up pose, taking it all in...no one was there for the photo-shoot, unfortunately.  I am blissful, perhaps a tad apprehensive...however, I throw my arms up and send all the love, peace and harmony my soul can muster out with the tide for the blessed people of Japan.  I feel safe...this is Laurie Frazier land...my mountain, ever steadfast is watching over me, Mr. Sun is shining down upon me.  All is well in my world.  I come out of the water...I decide I will seek higher ground and watch the show.  I turn around, away from the sea and directly behind me, high up on the hillside is a completely random, green lounge chair...I said, “Thank-you, Universe.”, climbed up and took a front row, solitary seat.

I look at my phone, I had received a text from my friend in Japan...he is safe, but stranded.  Again, I thank the Universe as I contemplate the fragility and impermanence of life itself...still thinking about what I would do differently if my time were indeed limited (which it is).

I curl up in the green lounge chair as I watch the sea roll and roar...what a wonder and beauty to behold.  Simultaneously, the images of devastation curse through my brain as just a few hours earlier on the other side of the planet, this beautiful earth and sea was wreaking havoc, taking lives and leaving a wake of destruction.  I thought about how we, as human beings can be that way...sometimes we are kind and sweet and loving other times we are hateful, contentious and at war.  I make a conscious vow to choose peace, to choose love over being right, to LIVE everyday of my life...to appreciate and find the silver lining in EVERYTHING...to shower the people I love with love...to keep smiling at strangers, to lead with my heart, to silently bless everyone that crosses my path and to continue my great love affair with the Universe, my Beloved. 

 An hour goes by...I come back down to the shore and begin the trek back...a few more peeps have come out...the apparent danger appears to have passed this little shore-line  though still quite deserted.  I pass another pastry man carrying his basket on his shoulder. I use my other peso for a banana muffin...much better....I smile on the inside.

I stop at the beach club, pull up a lounge chair and drift off in the sun...again, I am the only one there.  After an hour I put on my running shoes and start the walk home.  

At the end of the beach there are tables and chairs...I am often greeted by Mexicans waving...today, however when they waved me over, I stopped. They asked if they could take my picture. As they lifted the camera, I lifted my arms in my signature pose...the crowd cheered at the sight. 

At this table was a group of Mexican and Brazilian men in their 60’s...jovial and harmless.  They poured me a brandy tequila and coke and offered me a chair.  The Brazilian asks me in Spanish if I am French...I answered him in my best French, “Mais, oui, Monsieur, je suis Francais.”  He doesn’t understand me, but gets that he is right.  They all start speaking to me...I tell them, “no ablo espanol”...they flag over a translator...yet another pastry man...through him they ask me to come dancing tonight...”my husband wouldn’t approve”...falls out of my mouth.  “Where did that come from?”, I think to myself...and who the heck is my husband? They ask to take more pics with me, as if I am some celebrity and I’m off..they cheer as I walk away.

My next encounter was a horse of course...the strangest, most random events cross my path these days...I could fill a book from just my 6 weeks in Mexico alone.  So on my way to the beach at noon, I saw a horse tied to a tree just a ways back from the road...I said hello, but am often timid around such large creatures, preferring fairies and small birds.  After my expansive day of contemplation at the beach, I was no longer afraid. I was so over-flowing with love, I could fear nothing. The horse was still there...I gave him a big hug...he kissed my hand and loved me back.  We had a sweet little exchange...I told him how beautiful he was and he told me I was lovable..”.awww...thanks, horsie...nice to hear...so are you!!

When you are awake and living the winged-life, there is beauty and wonder all around. I see the Beloved in everything I love.  What is a “winged-life”? The winged life is embodied in the following quote by Thoreau, “ If the day and the night are such that you greet them with with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, more elastic, more starry, more immortal--that is your success.” Thoreau reminds us in Walden, "Only that day dawns to which we are awake."  One must be fully awake to SEE and in the words of St. Exupery from the Little Prince, “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  When we truly see the world from our heart, everything has meaning, the Universe is in constant communication with us, life becomes magical and the mundane sacred.  

In the midst of our chaotic world, may you choose to see with your hearts all the beauty that is ever present.