Katie LaRoche

The Winding Path

03 Oct 2011 1 Comment

by Katie LaRoche in Belize

Today we took a bus to visit Ma Flo, the woman that my pal Mallory and I stayed with the last time we were here working as college students in an orphanage here in Belize.  Shanika, her granddaughter, met us at the gate.  I hardly recognized her.  “You look different,” she said as we embraced, clearly feeling the same way.  “This is my daughter,” she said, “and I have a little two-month old boy inside.” 

Four years brings on so many changes, yet in the same breath, so few. The winding path to Ma Flo’s house was still so familiar: the old shop where we used to buy our snacks, the skinny stray dogs roaming about, the slow pace, the sugary juice, the smells and energy.

It was a sweet visit with old friends, and I couldn’t help but feel a certain sadness as we said our goodbyes and made our way to that familiar bus stop that would take us back to the city.

 

It’s possible to revisit the past, the one requirement being that you come as you are.  ~Robert Brault

It has been almost four years since my last visit to this country, and long gone is the perspective of that wide-eyed college student. It is quite amazing that the core of who we are never actually changes, yet the lens through which we view this life has an ability to quickly and drastically alter.  We can revisit our past mentally or even physically but each time we must come as we are in the present moment with our present and ever-changing perspective.