PURA VIDA!
It amazes me what gems exist in the world,
and how many years it takes me to find them...
to really find them...
I had heard about Costa Rica’s “motto”, “PURA VIDA”… and, it had gone in one ear and out the other, as people told me about it.
We were fortunate as a family to have spent this past week in Costa Rica,
and we leave today, ready for 2017…
And, more conscious of the words,
PURA VIDA…
Grateful to have seen this beautiful country of Costa Rica,
And, even more so to have met a few of its lovely people.
Looking into the origina, it appears that in 1956 a movie called “Pura Vida” was made in Costa Rica by a Mexican director. While the movie does not appear to have been very good, the concept and words “Pura Vida” captured the essence of the Costa Rican people and lifestyle, and by 1970 it was a wide spread form of greeting.
Literally it means “Pure Life”,
But that ain’t it!
It’s more a “Hakuna Matata”…
It’s more than “hang loose”…
It’s more than “life is good”…
I enjoyed asking people what it meant…
They all seemed to have the same definition,
But used different words.
“No matter what is happening in life… you must LIVE it!”
“It’s all life… celebrate all of it.”
“Live Aware. Live Happy.”
“Even if you are in debt up to your eyeballs, you need to look forward and be happy.”
“No matter how hard your life may seem, there are so many others in the world that would trade places with you in a moment. Stay conscious of that… GRATEFUL for that… and FEEL the JOY.”
You know me... I kept hearing... "Embrace the 'IS'"... "Move toward the WANT" ;-)
What moved me, was not necessarily the words, but the shared commitment to happiness…
There was NEVER a sense of “you, the foreigner, are the lucky one.” There was never even a small sense of envy or anger or dislike, which you tend to feel in many countries (the US included).
The sense was more “I love being here… I hope you do as well... we are both lucky.”
There are various reasons why so many people vacation in Costa Rica…
And their sense of life is one of them. How often do you hear of people vacationing in El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua? All countries with similar beauty and weather… The stability of the Costa Rican government helps, but what begets what? Does government beget attitude, or attitude beget government? Or maybe a little bit of both…
BRAND matters... BRAND is culture... BRAND must be FELT and EXPERIENCED in every moment... and PURA VIDA is COSTA RICA!
They don’t just say it… they mean it… they live it.
I need the reminder of PURA VIDA more often in my life…
And, what a great message to end the year on…
I love how messages tie together in our life, when we are conscious of them…
As I was reading a book yesterday on the beach, I came across an excerpt from the first “Self Help” book, entitled “Self Help” written in 1859 by Samuel Smiles…
“The poor man
with a rich spirit
is in all ways
superior
to the rich man
with a poor spirit…
Only the poor in spirit are really poor.
He who has lost all,
but retains his courage, cheerfulness, hope,
virtue, and self-respect,
is still rich.”
This was a BOLD concept at the time, when the world was still all about our genes defining our value as human beings... Smiles wrote about the concept that it is our minds, our attitude, our mindfulness that ultimately defines us.
I would have been a "self-help" junkie in the 1800's.
It amazes me how little the message of mindfulness has changed.
and it amazes me how many in our world today still fail to deliberately engage in it.
The challenge of adopting it and embracing it - IS the journey,
but so many live without deliberately accepting or acknowledging
mindfulness IS the answer.
Costa Rican’s aren’t poor by any means,
They are some of the richest people that I have ever met…
RICH IN ATTITUDE…
Imagine, for a moment, if a nation like ours in the US could define its mindfulness in those kind of words… How would it change the country? How could it change the world?
We will remember our week in Costa Rica
For many reasons…
And with the memories,
I take also the words…
PURA VIDA…
And, the deep desire,
To embrace them more…
To mean them more…
To LIVE them more…
In harmony…
PURA
VIDA…
Gracias
Costa
Rica!
Nesto