Focus on Mexico Blog

By Tere Ruiz

Have you ever thought about retiring to Mexico and living a life on vacation with a lower cost of living, much better weather than where you live, an enigmatic culture…?

But…how can you Focus on Mexico if every day you are bombarded by the media with information regarding the drug cartels, the insecurity, the bandidos, etc…?

How can you Focus on Mexico if you don’t know the real thing?  I mean the real thing?

Focusing on Mexico

Jean Jacques Rousseau, (1712-1778) used to say a famous phrase very well known in Mexico that can be translated to “Your liberty is limited by the liberty of your neighbors.”  

If the media follows this reasoning, then the listener has the freedom to hear the truth and make their own conclusions as to the truth of what they’re hearing, and then will not feel manipulated.

By Tere Ruiz

Mexican Time

Ever since I moved down to the Lake Chapala area, I have discovered many things that Mexicans normally do without noticing how annoying they can be to people from other cultures. One of the things that I believe surprises, or maybe I should say, annoys people from other countries and even Mexicans at some point, is the Mexican Time.

Listening to people who come to the Lake Chapala area from other countries and their experience with the locals, I have realized that I have dealt with the same things they complain about regarding Mexican Time, for all my life as well have all the people who live in this country.  Maybe we Mexicans are so used to dealing with the Mexican Time issues that most of the time, we don’t really pay much attention or think it is a big deal. 

Mexican Ways?

All over the world, people have their own way of being.  This depends on the different environments, culture, preferences, values and beliefs.  What works for Mexicans may not work for everybody, and Mexican Time is a big example.

 By Tere Ruiz

Father’s Day is coming and I believe it is a good time for reflection, gratitude, honoring and healing.  Whether we have good memories or bad memories about our parents and our childhood, whether our parents lived long or didn’t, whether there were times when they gave us headaches, I am sure there were also times in which they gave us joy, love and also, I am sure that they were proud of their children.

So let me tell you about my father… gee, I loved that man!  I really did.  I don’t even know why I loved him so madly.  I don’t mean that he didn’t deserve it -although I do think that everyone deserves to be loved- still, I can tell you that since I recall, I loved my daddy!

 Ever since we were kids our moms and dads, our teachers and even our grandparents told us about how difficult life was, how hard it was to succeed, how much life was about struggle, about hard work, about suffering. Even when we fell in love with someone, they would always tell us how much Love hurts...

Do you remember when you were told that in order to achieve success, you needed to be the best one, to be number one in the class, to get the best grades, to go to college, to become "the boss"? Everything was about hard work, competition and struggle.

I strongly believe that there is something not quite right in this equation because, success is about joy, about completion. So how could you ever feel joy if you reach success when you have never practiced it? How can you live in joy if you have never tried it before?

by Tere Ruiz

  How many times do we see a little puppy and immediately click and fall in love with it? They are so soft, they are so sweet, their breath smells so good… they look at you with their gentle eyes, and then you know, you just know, they are meant to be with you…

When I saw Gala, my beloved Golden Retriever, for the very first time, I could even see more, but not only with the eyes on my face, but with the eyes of my heart. She was sitting there looking as gorgeous as she was. I knew she was the right dog, and that was her last time to be considered a dog, because she became the Queen of my Heart.