Stop...look...listen...

Like so many people before me, I hated coming to the end of "Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett. However, I feel very lucky that I waited so long to read this book. I had heard how wonderful it was. Somehow, I must have known that I shouldn't read it until I could practice some of the lessons this book teaches so effortlessly.

It is a simply story. A famous soprano is invited to perform in a poor South American country for the birthday of a Japanese industrialist and opera lover. The leaders of the country hope to impress this man so much that he will build his next factory in their capital. Important people from all over the world are invited to an exquisite dinner and performance at the magnificent home of the vice president. They are all taken hostage by a rag-tag "Peoples' Army". The women, except the soprano, are quickly released.

As one day follows another, as days turn into weeks, the captives, both hostages and guerillas, discover that without the past to fret about and with the future completely unknown, they can fully experience life in the present.

These people are not on vacation, for if they were they would still have that nagging sense of what they should be doing...finding the perfect restaurant...upgrading to a suite...visiting that history museum they have no interest in. The hostages must do the opposite of what they have done their entire lives; they must refrain from making decisions. They are powerful people with important jobs and one by one, they discover that living in the here and now is not only liberating, but exhilarating.

Sometimes, life forces us to live in the present tense. New mothers lose their own lives for a while. They cannot sleep or go to the grocery store or even wash their hair without first making sure the baby is safe and content. If we have to recuperate from surgery, or are very ill, our lives can stop feeling like our own. We have to listen to our doctors; we have to ask our loved ones for help. We are humbled. I suspect that cloistered monks and nuns must live in the present far more than most of us. I know that dogs understand how to do it.

In "Bel Canto" the characters discover many things they enjoy doing...cooking, cleaning, learning, teaching, gardening, exercising. When captivity provides the freedom to be who they truly are, their lives become more simple and small, but much more rich and deep.

Moving to Mexico has been the most liberating and exhilarating experience I have ever had. My days and weeks belong only to me. I can fill them - or not - as I desire. So, I dance, I learn Spanish, I write, I walk, I pray, I take pictures, I read, I cook, and I color. With crayons.

So many of us spend our time, our "present tenses", in search of lower golf scores, better jobs, larger homes,

newer cars, having the perfect wedding, getting into a smaller size, having a boy and a girl, and my goal: finding the perfect lipstick. We know how to remain very busy...in fact, Americans seem especially uncomfortable having "nothing to do".

As soon as my Spanish exams end, tomorrow, I am going to treat myself to a week of...less. Less everything. I don't know if I will discover something that I love, the way the characters did in "Bel Canto". But I do have the feeling that I will come away from the week with something... more.