What do we all go on vacations for? To get away from the hustle and bustle, breathe in some new air, and experience a fresh perspective by getting out of our normal element. I welcomed 2012 in Tulum, Mexico last week with my childhood best friend and it worked. But being in such a light and free place allowed my senses to sharpen even further. My blissful travels were made possible by my power of intention and purposeful living. Please keep reading.
It’s been my recent goal to complete and implement the Bilingual Birdies Online Teacher Training Program with the hopes of training teachers abroad in order to service the largest amount of children worldwide. Tuesday on the pearly white sand beach in Tulum, I approached a random red bench where a woman was seated and asked, “Podemos compartir?” Translation: Can we share? Of course she said yes and we got to chatting as polite Mexicans do. She, Gabi, just moved back to her parents home in Veracruz after a 4 year stint in London studying cultural entrepreneurship. Naturally, I was intrigued with her studies. She explained she is an artist and hopes to sell her cultural drawings, but the real reason she moved back was to help her parents. Then with bright eyes, she said it: “They have these 8 language schools where they teach English to adults and kids, but they are having a hard time finding a fun way to teach the little kids. You know, like some kind of engaging system where they can learn.” Time sort of stopped at that moment for me. C’mon, aren’t we at 7 billion people on the planet by now? What are the chances that we would be sharing the same bench at the same time and match so perfectly to be able to help one another in such a specific way? Clearly, somewhere in both of our subconscious was our intention. The following minutes went like this: big smiles > my passionate explanation of what we do at Bilingual Birdies > email exchange > hugs. For the record, we have an original song in the BB curriculum called “Vamos a Compartir” (Let’s Share) where we teach kids the words for sharing while they pass around a sensory ball. My wish is that our kids will remember those words when they grow up, share a bench with a local on their vacation and experience a similar fortunate exchange.
Just one more quick anecdote in case you’re left with any doubts that this is some hippie banter I picked up from all the books I read with clouds and rainbows on them. On Wednesday we went to yoga and had a bite at the vegetarian nook outside the shala. This was not on the beach. It’s in the jungle. We strolled in with our post yoga glow and there were 3 gentlemen seated on tree stumps who looked vaguely familiar. “Hey, I know you!” I have no social etiquette when it comes to these things. Luckily, one of them affirmed that I looked very familiar. It turns out Eddie, Seymone, and Joseph are three Iranian Jews from LA who went to my high school’s rival. (Note: Reminder that I’m half Mexican and half Iranian and so this is kind of awesome.) Farsi was spoken, Burningman stories were compared, and then more hugs. I told them, “You know it’s pretty awesome to find Iranians here in the middle of the jungle. It’s totally a feeling of khodemooni.” Khodemooni is this sentiment that something is strikingly comfortable between us, there’s a similarity and (for me) that we’ve pleasantly known each other for a while. Then it hit me. That feeling of khodemooni is what I am striving to instill in kids at a very young age by teaching them about foreign language and culture in such a positive way. The purpose is that even if one of our students is not from a Mandarin speaking country, they are able to cultivate a love for the language and associated cultures. And, someday they might find themselves in a jungle in South Africa, meet an Taiwanese, share some Mandarin and both will have a mutual feeling that somehow all of us as part of the 7 billion are in one way or another, khodemooni. Sometimes it takes a little vacation to remind you that you are doing exactly what you are meant to be doing and that the universe is so on your side.
Cheers,
Sarah
