Remembering And Honoring The Past

It was "supposed" to rain here all day long and I was so looking forward to that. Not only because we need it so badly but because I envisioned myself feeling completely guilt-free in spending a leisurely day and Mr. Moon and I even made a little date for some possible rainy day foolin' around. 
Well, it has hardly rained at all but I have still managed to be completely unproductive with the notable exception of a few things and we had our date anyway, rain or no. 
So it's been lovely. 
But because I've done so little and I haven't even left the house except to feed the crows, I have taken no pictures and I have nothing to talk about, I decided to go back through some photos of Cozumel. The trip these photos were taken from came from the last week in December in 2018 and the first days of January in 2019. So, just about seven years ago. 
How can this be? 
The picture at top is of Ixchel, the Mayan goddess who general lore says was the goddess for whom Cozumel was sacred. She was a major goddess, worshipped as the deity of the moon, fertility, medicine, and weaving. Also midwifery. Again, so the story goes. A whole lot of information was lost when the fucking Spanish priests burned all the Mayan codices, which were books made of bark paper and which held not only religious history but also their mathematic and scientific discoveries, history of major eras, rulers, and wars, as well as royal lineages, their knowledge of astronomy, and their culture. Let us not forget the thousands of religious statues the Spaniard bastards destroyed. 
Because, you know- they wanted to convert the heathens to Catholicism. 
Fucking religion. 

I guess tonight is a sweary night. 
Sorry. Not sorry. 

Anyway, there is a lot of debate about what Ixchel's true historical meaning was and it's not certain that Cozumel was considered sacred to her but still, although her image is not seen nearly as much as that of the Virgin of Guadalupe's there, this statue is prominently displayed in a fountain on the main road which parallels the ocean in the main (only) town of San Miguel. 

And of course I love her. 

One of the cemeteries on the island.

This one is downtown in San Miguel and we generally visit it when we're there. The dead are interred in these little houses or shelters and on the Day of the Dead, flowers and food and drink and items representing the things those who are buried there loved.  

This one always makes me cry. It is the resting place of an American woman named Mary who moved to the island way before it ever became a tourist destination. She and her husband fell in love with the people and the life there and chose to make it their home until her death. 

And now her bones and her body will always be a part of the island she came to love and called home and there are parts of me which completely understands and if I'd not had children waiting for me to return home from the trips Glen and I took there, I might have chosen to do the same thing she did. 
The stone work around the arch is very typical for that area of Mexico. 

I think about this little girl more than you can imagine. 
That smile! Those eyes! 
She was in a highchair at lunch with what I presume were her mother and her tia, her aunt, and I flirted with her outrageously. I asked for permission to take her picture and was graciously given it. She's probably what? Ten years old now?
Oh, how I hope that she is as happy a being now as she was then. 

I have posted this picture more than once. This is my handsome husband at our New Year's Eve dinner. I swear to you- he has not changed an iota. 

And here I am. I am looking rather "come hither" here, aren't I? 
Well. I mean look at that margarita. 
And also- look at the man I was with. 

And okay, lastly...

I really don't think I need to say a word about this. 

I could (and probably should) write an entire book about what Cozumel has meant to me since our first visit in 1987. But for now, I am happy to play with some memories, to be grateful for those visits, to recognize how very different my life and possibly my marriage would have been without them. 
In Cozumel I was Maria Luna and that woman? 
Well. She was something else. 
Or someone else. And personally, I think that both Ixchel and the Virgin of Guadalupe filled up a part of my soul I didn't know was empty. They allowed me to be a woman I did not know existed within me. 
And oh, she could be glorious. 

Happy Friday, y'all. May it rain tomorrow. 

Love...Ms. Moon