Good-bye Birgitta...

Birgitta left today. And I'm sad to see her go... She's the first of the Northern Europeans in the house that's heading back home within the next week. I've had a great time getting to know them all, seeing various shows, going to markets, taking weekend trips, shopping, and having coffees that last two hours minimum. Birgitta taught me the most though, using the fewest words in the least amount of time.

She is probably late sixties or slightly seventy and the spiciest, most elegantly eccentric little trick (in a good way) I've ever met. (And I've had the privilege to know a few of you gals!) If I where to compare her to food, she would be like an Indian curry of sorts, a mix of coriander and cayenne pepper that is ever so delicately balanced with coconut milk and cinnamon.

Her entire presence seems to move to a rhymn I've never known. She only ever wears black and white with accents of red, right up to her hair, which is short, raven black with a touch of red dye in her bangs. (It's difficult to describe that in a good way, but she looks amazing!) She speaks very calmly and quietly, almost like a waterfall. Every morning she took at least an hour to enjoy her coffee on the terrace, basking in the start of a new. I only saw her rush once and that was when she was rushing out the door for an evening of Tango with friends, which really was nothing unusual. She seemed to go Tango dancing every night till 4 and 5 in the morning, after many of the young ones had long gone to sleep. If fact, her whole purpose in being in Buenos Aires for two months was in pursuit of the Tango, and I'd like to think in pursuit of a life lived fully. (This is not to suggest that everyone needs to travel or live in another country to live fully...maybe only that we try to live more of the things we love.)

I hope that Birgitta and I will cross paths again one day, but even if we don't, I've experienced a new way of enjoying and living to the fullest at whatever age, at whatever moment one finds themself. It doesn't seem to be about how much we do in life, but how much we deeply indulge in the moments we're given.

Goodbye Birgitta... you'll be missed.