The Magic of Guanajuato

[Jzmackenzie]

The Magic of Guanajuato (written today by me for visiting teachers/
students leaving after being here a month)

About 3am the steady, nurturing sound of rain awakened me from a deep
and restful sleep. The gentle feminine energy that flowed around me
immediately felt like prayers of thanks. I imagined that my farmer
neighbors were sending those thoughts toward the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The Virgin is our local symbol of fertility. A symbol of Her is
featured in each small chapel in all the villages surrounding the
Presa a la Prisima and often on the necks of anyone living in this
farming environment: a place of growth, change and transition.

What is surprising about Guanajuato is that even in the city the
gentle feminine energy from the Virgin of Guadalupe is helping
visitors to grow, change, and transition, perhaps from having been
exposed to Her city. It is my belief that when people come to
Guanajuato the power of the feminine energy located within this city
?stretches? each of them to grow, change and transition within
themselves.

In the six summers that I have observed 20 or more students grow,
change, and transition from having been exposed to this city and the
people living in and around that bowl-shaped, receptive, female-symbol
city called Guanajuato. I think that anyone coming here has put
themselves in the position to make a major transition in their life.
Like the rain falling on the small corn plants buried just under the
surface of the soil, people are like a seed just sprouting forth and
needing just a little outside help to grow. Visitors ?plant?
themselves just under the surface of this culture for long enough and
they grow in ways that would not have been the same as they would had
they remained inside their own culture. Visitors will "sprout" in this
nurturing environment. Guanajuato is their "rain."

After six years of observations of about 150 young and old university
visitors it really does seem magical that none of them left unchanged.
They all apparently felt the pull of the gentle feminine energy in the
city: the friendly residents, the kind gestures and the overall
politeness.

I know that visitors never forget the experience of having been here.
I certainly feel grateful for the opportunity to live here and be
nurtured by gentle feminine energy that flows around me every day.
Enjoy the growth, changes and transitions you have experienced in
Guanajuato and stop back by one day, we will be waiting for each of
you.

Safe Travels,
Jacquie