Goodbye to 2008 with a poem by Neruda

I was in South America for the holidays. I visited friends and family in Argentina and then went to Chile for New Year´s Eve in Vina del Mar, a very well known beach resort in the Southern Hemisphere. Chile as you know is in the Pacific ocean, so it is very cold, even in the summer. I actually had to wear a sweater to walk around the beach because the summer breeze is cold and so is the water. Vina has one of the most spectacular fireworks for New Year´s Eve, but what I really loved about this town was the people. When I travel I tend to be very open to new experiences and situations. I went with family but I spent a lot of time alone just to write, read and think.

Chileans are a very laid back, friendly and family oriented sort of people. What you see the most in Vina is young lovers kissing, crying, holding hands, eating ice cream and wasting time.

People here are not agressive at all. I liked that. This past year I have been to a few countries where people were quite abnoxious and desperate. I am not judging, after all, we all need to make a living right? but as a tourist, I prefer people not talking to me, unless they have something nice to say, like Happy New Year and Do you like Chile or What would you like to eat?

I was quite impressed with Chile´s coast line. I have never seen the rock formations I saw there. I enjoyed sitting there watching the waves. I visited Pablo Neruda´s home on the beach and understood why he wrote such romantic poems. Here is my favorite. A great description of an affair gone south.

"The night is full of stars,and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance." The night wind whirls in the sky and sings. I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. On nights like this, I held her in my arms.I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky. She loved me, sometimes I loved her.How could I not have loved her large, still eyes? I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her. To hear the immense night, more immense without her.And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass. What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.The night is full of stars and she is not with me. That's all. Far away, someone sings. Far away.My soul is lost without her. As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her.My heart searches for her and she is not with me. The same night that whitens the same trees.We, we who were, we are the same no longer. I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her.My voice searched the wind to touch her ear. Someone else's. She will be someone else's. As she oncebelonged to my kisses.Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes. I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her.Love is so short and oblivion so long. Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,my soul is lost without her. Although this may be the last pain she causes me,and this may be the last poem I write for her.

So quite melancholic I said good bye to 2008. It was a year of the wake up call. I have been thinking we can´t keep living beyond our means forever. We have to cut back. Everyone has to do their own part and cease to worry. I plan to love more, spend less, more time in nature, less time worrying, more time enjoying work and life. I don´t know what will happen in 2009, but I know one thing, I am going to keep my chin up and do the best I can. I am not going to let the financial news overwhelm me. I am going to keep smiling and believing things are going to get better. I hope you will too. I can´t wait!