If this is indeed my last blog from my three months in Mexico it feels like I should have some kind of big wrap up statement or something. Perhaps I should have learned something or been able to sum up this life changing experience in a clear and simple way?

I am laying in a hammock listening to a great radio show from Toronto called Abstract Index. He even interviewed a friend and fellow musician Brodie West tonight. This all made me very happy and I could almost imagine I was home again. I am really anxious to leave now. Some of you may think that I should be cherishing the last few days but there is almost an anxiety involved the major change that will be home.

For example, my day to day life will change quite drastically. Here in Mexico I often played banjo and fiddle on a beach or outside anyways. Back in Toronto I will be doing that in my little basement (can't wait!) Almost every day here we would prepare our own style of Mexican-type food that often resembled something like tacos. When I get home, we will probably eat tacos a little less often. However, there is food that we all crave; Chili comes to mind. (Don't people claim chili is a Mexican food?)

Whenever possible on this trip I spent a fair bit of time online. I suppose I do the same in Toronto. You can count on me checking my email and Facebook in the morning. (I usually try not to do that on Sundays) Also I usually end up online a bit over lunch and usually late at night.

Most days here I drank beer. (sometimes even before lunch when it got really hot) I never drink beer in the daytime in Toronto. Well...not in the early daytime... (thank you Steve Martin). However, I like to go out at night and have a pint or two of beer with my friends and hear their gigs etc.

One big difference will be that my kids will go to school. (for six hours, five days a week!) Most of you know how much I love my kids and how I have enjoyed spending so much time with them since they were born. This was one of the great things about this trip however; enough is enough. (ha!)

I suppose I learned a bit of spanish. I certainly took my calm, relaxed inner spirit to perhaps another level. However, I think this trip confirmed for me that relaxation, happiness, inspiration, creativity are mostly in your mind and your heart. One doesn't really need to be by the ocean or palm trees to find these things. Really, the search for these things is ongoing, gradual and it is hard work. I might even go so far as saying that travelling like this this could be a distraction. Perhaps it another level of learning where one needs to learn how to learn while travelling. ie. I am in a town that I don't like that much for four days; what should I do?

Big props go to my partner Julie for organizing this trip. I really didn't do anything to help plan and she did a great job (she doesn't read my blog). I know I can offer my kids lots of important things but I wouldn't have been able to pull this off the way she did.

Seven minutes left in the Abstract Index. A couple days left in this trip. Hopefully lots of interesting days to come in my city; Toronto.

I was going to sit down and watch a few episodes of The Office as I have been doing over the last few nights but then I thought of you dear blog reader.

I have not been much of a blog-friend; this I realize. Why, you ask? I suppose it is partly because we have not had much internet convenience and when I got on it I was often doing some Facebook time and then catching up with a few business emails etc. (yes, that is a subtle request of my few friends not on Facebook to join)

Anyhow, it is all chugging along just fine. Recent realizations include having convinced myself (for real) that it is summer as well as waking up with a fairly empty mind. By this I mean that I have little to do, little to worry about and no deadlines to meet. Yes, that is pretty great. (now the dark complaining part....) But, I do realize that I miss some of the deadlines and things on my mind. For example, I used to wake up back in Toronto thinking about nothing but how soon I could get on the banjo. These days those types of thoughts are a bit clouded by my love for playing the fiddle. However, all you banjo fans out there will be happy to know that I am traveling with my Gold Tone (hand carved!) and play it a fair bit.

As I have mentioned on other social networking devices; the thing we really like about our spot here in Telchac Puerto is that we have all the conveniences of home. By this I really mean; Wifi and a nice couch and TV. (I have watched an NHL game every second day since we arrived!!)

It was pretty neat to drive for less than ten minutes to a very interesting Myan ruin today. (yes, there are pictures on my Facebook page) I am less than thrilled that our next destination is only about five doors down the beach from here but that is out of my control and really I have not much to complain about.

So...NOW I will go and watch Dwight, and Jim and Pam and .....I never worked in an office myself so I will just assume that this is a reasonable representation. (love the themesong!!)

On this journey to Mexico I have read more books in the first two months that I have read in the last two years.

It has been a nice coincidence that some of the books and my activities here in Mexico have been somewhat connected. Especially memorable was the transition from Tom Robbins' Still Life of the Woodpecker to my friend Larry Gaudet's Safe Haven.(Random House Canada) Robbin's Pyramid, to Larry's travels to the Greek Parthenon to the Myan ruins that we are exploring right here in our own back yard.

I really only knew Larry as a hockey Dad. However he is not just any hockey Dad as he has two kids that play and Larry is always the first to add fun, optimistic banter before and after in the kids dressing room.

Safe Haven is Larry's personal journey towards Sanctuary that mostly included his experiences in Foggy Cove Nova Scotia where he had a house built on the ocean for his family to live in over the last few years. (including one full year retreat to the house)

I could relate to so much of his personal journey with his family as I too am searching for sanctuary here in Mexico. It was both the outer more obvious family stories and the inner search for something that I relate to.

His day to day challenges with being an artist and an indivdual while bonding with his wife and kids really hits home. At times he knows he should be listening or at least more connected but his mind is elsewhere. The playful moments he describes with his kids are quite beautiful and would make anyone with or without kids a little jealous.

Also, Larry is not afraid to mention the negative parts of their seemingly idyllic life in Nova Scotia such as the occasional tension between him and his wife Alison. I laughed aloud a few times when these moments arose as he really describes them well. There is a feeling of comfort knowing that everyone goes through that.

The parts of the book I enjoyed the most took part in what feels like the present in Toronto or Nova Scotia. It is an interesting idea the way he tied in his honeymoon trip to Greece to talk about ancient sanctuary but I often wished they would be back in Foggy Cove.

Anyone who travels, has family, is considering moving out of the city to their dream-environment or wonders about sanctuary in their own life will enjoy this book.

My own search for Sanctuary continues here in Mexico however I am realizing more and more that any transformation profound effect this trip may have will be somewhere down the road after our return to the hectic Toronto that we so love and miss.

Hi friends,

I have had a few comments from you that my blogs from deep in the heart of the Quintana Roo province of Mexico seem a bit dark or negative.

Well...tough. (just kidding!)

I have been making an attempt not to pile on the stories of sun and family joy etc. here and in Facebook partly because we are on a long journey here (three months!) and you will surely grow tired of that type of reporting.

So I pour myself another tequila while the family tries to go to sleep in the other room and give you all the latest. (if it is of any importance to you, I have Neil Young's latest CD Le Noise really loud in my headphones)

We have a few more days here at our idyllic beach house and believe it or not we are all looking forward to moving to new surroundings.

It is quite something to wake up to ocean every morning and to play banjo on the beach as the waves roll to my feet. However, there is a limit to our activities. I guess this is one thing that I have learned so far about the amazing life I lead back in Toronto; there are very few limits to what I can do in a day there. Every evening includes a menu of the performing arts, usually a friend or two involved in the proceedings as well as a great little group of friendly and willing individuals to hang out with.

Partly because of the mosquito situation here, we go to bed quite early and usually a bored game or some extended reading is about all that is in our after dinner repertoire.

Today we broke things up by driving 18 Kilometers further north and to the end of our remote beach road. It was fun to wander around a new beach that is even more remote than where we live right now. We were trying to make the kids realize that so many people will never get to experience something like that. I know it is my first time being in places like these.

I am really enjoying all the reading I am doing. I finished a book about Country Music, then I finished Angela's Ashes (which I found here on the bookshelf) and now reading something loosely based on a type rope walkers life in New York. (trying to save the books I brought for later in the trip when there is nothing else to read)

Did I mention we are going through a lot of beer? Sol beer is a lot like drinking water only I feel slightly better after having two of them. ha!

I am trying to ride a bike about 20KM every other day and hoping that and my daily snorkeling excursion will stop me from getting really fat and not come home in terrible shape for hockey.

Not having a TV (we have one but we don't turn it on) and rarely watching DVDs has really forced all of us here to engage with each other. This can be tricky at times as you can imagine but I am glad we are doing it.

I figure I am getting way too much sleep. Every night I am up for at least an hour doing way too much thinking. I guess the 12 or 13 hours that I am in bed are a little great compared to the solid 6.5 I was used to getting back home.

However, the thinking has brought me to a new idea for the upcoming year. I am going to celebrate (even if only with myself) the 20th anniversary of Guildwood Records by writing an essay about each one of my CD releases. Try to give some insight about what was going on for me and in music in general when they were recorded and try to put them in perspective in todays musical climate.

The big idea (this one might be a bit far fetched) is to do my own redux of my first Cd; Hoser City twenty years later. I want to play all the instruments but this time it will be guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin and bass.

I guess that is it for now. I wish you all a Merry Christmas. I don't think we have an internet connection next month. This could be a good or a bad thing; we shall see.

I am glad to be missing this terrible season with the Leafs however I may try to tune in to Hockey Night in Canada this weekend and catch a period and coaches corner as it may be my last for a while.

Go easy on Don Cherry too okay? Is anyone really surprised that he is a Rob Ford supporter? Come on...Don has always worn it all on his sleeve.

tp

I am listening to the debut record from the Punch Brothers with headphones on (something I have meant to do for more than a year) while I watch the full moon rise over the ocean.

As the ocean breeze blows in through the screened-off wall of our dining room I am thinking that that the view is right on par with this great music. Actually, both are competing for my attention.
The minute changes like cloud cover or reflection on the water are equaling the squeal of Chris Thile’s mandolin strings or the beautiful bass parts that I so often overlook.
This is my first “Mexiblog” and I forgot to mention anything about this vast country so far. Where do I start? Tequila has been a constant but only like a subtle spice in our soup of life (that is a bit corny eh?) I guess I mean that we have been drinking lots but never yet had too much.

This brings me to the part of this trip that is both special and challenging; parenting. I just can’t do my job as a parent if I drank the amount of tequila (and beer for that matter) that I would like to. Maybe that is part of the gift they give us? This ability to “keep it all together” has also allowed us to get up very early each morning and enjoy the whole day in the beauty of our ocean-front-yard.

Wow; Noam Pikelny really is a great banjo player. (and since we are keeping score; the clouds are no longer covering the almost full moon)

Today was like most days since we arrived at this remote beach house near Xcalak. I got a good couple hours of banjo practice in and then snorkeled with Julie and the boys. Later I got about an hour of fiddle practicing in too but really I wanted to tell you about the snorkeling.

It took a couple days but now I am loving it. Today I realized that if I really relaxed and listened to my breathing (I like to pretend I am a fish!) I can float and watch fish go by and be happier than I could even imagine.

When you go a long time without listening to music with headphones (and I don’t mean earbuds!) you forget how great it can be. This is giving me greater insight to a record I have heard 100 times before.

As the moon rises the moonlight on the ocean is reaching out towards me and has almost made it to the shore. (will it come in the dining room?)

After we BBQed some burgers and dogs I played some Nerf football on the beach with the boys. I thought they were going to explode they loved it so much. I dragged them in before the mosquitoes (yes they have those here too) came out but we finished the night off early with a good game of Scrabble and I finally won.

Which brings us right here. One person is asleep, while two others read in bed. I too look forward to some reading time in bed as I found a copy of The Road. A very dark book about a father and son and the end of the world. I found it here on the bookshelf.

Sleeping has been quite weird. We often go to bed quite early. As a matter of fact, writing this blog post is the first real evening activity I have had in the last week. There is a constant roar from the distant waves breaking further North on the ocean and some dogs that bark a lot. The temperature seems to change every day as well as by the hour throughout the night.

Any bad nights of sleep we have had are balanced out by the almost-mandatory siesta around 2 or 3pm the next day.

The moon has a beautiful haze (I used that word in Scrabble tonight) now behind it and the Punch Brothers have moved on to another part in Chris Thile’s beautiful suite; The Blind Leaving the Blind.

We are not in Toronto any more…