Category: Family

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Mother’s Day in Costa Rica

In our beautiful country of Costa Rica, Mother’s Day is celebrated each year on August 15th. This national holiday, known locally as Día de la Madre, falls on the same day as the Feast of the Assumption, which is the day that Catholics observe the Virgin Mary’s ascension to Heaven when her earthly life was over. For that reason, Mother’s Day is not only a celebration for all mothers, but it is also considered to be a spiritual holiday for many of the residents of Costa Rica.

It is one of the most important holidays in the country with all banks, government offices and schools closed and many businesses (like Aeropost where I was planning to go today!). Right now I hear a band playing in Central Atenas, undoubtedly in honor of Mothers!

Today Ticos give gifts to their Moms in appreciation of the many things they do to raise a family and a newer thing is to take her out to a restaurant for dinner tonight. Today’s article in Tico Times:  Costa Rica celebrates Mother’s Day.

I have never been anywhere where everyone (all ages – even teens) are very affectionate to their mothers, such as when walking with Mom in town everyone holds Mom’s hand, even teens! With the very elderly Moms they are arm-in-arm walking through town as if to give her more support. It is a beautiful cultural tradition in a beautiful country full of love!

“Una madre es la fuerza del amor y la gracia que supera y rinde todas las fuerzas del mal.” – Josep Torras

“A mother is the strength of love and grace that surpasses and yields all the forces of evil.” – Josep Torras

¡Pura Vida!

 

Featured Photo is from my terrace this cloudy morning that many mothers will bring a ray of sunshine to! And hopefully their children to them!      🙂

See also my photo gallery PEOPLE, FIESTAS & ARTS COSTA RICA

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Encountering Jesús Often in Costa Rica

Jesús

A very popular name for boys here is Jesús, yes that is Spanish for the English name Jesus but with the Spanish pronunciation and noted accent on last syllable: for you English-only speakers it is pronounced like “yay-sús.” It is not considered sacrilegious to use our Lord’s name as a given name, though some boys and more men tend to use their other given name, possibly because of the religious connotation or I can imagine little boys being kidded or bullied over their name.

Just today I conversed with Jesús twice. My taxi driver to the bus station was named Jesús Alpizar and his spirit and relation to me gave honor to his name which is what he is called by everyone as a young man in Atenas. Then in Alajuela today I went to my wonderful dermatologist named Jesús Roberto Gamboa Arend, who goes by Dr. Gamboa or Dr. Roberto Gamboa (choosing not to be called Jesús). But he too gives honor to his first name in his spirit and ways of relating to me. In addition to being my doctor, he is now my “Tico Travel Buddy” as he too enjoys traveling all over Costa Rica for both the sights and adventures, he with his family (2 children). He is the one who has removed all my skin cancers and is regularly monitoring the many growths I continue to get over my body due to my outdoor sunshine in the past.   🙂

A Break from Blogging

Yes, partly I just need a break from the blog sometimes. And after two trips rather close together, I was sort of tired which I seem to get more now that I’m nearly 80. But I have still been writing or really posting photos on my “static” pages of this website, just slowly. For a few days I added more trips to my Pre-Costa Rica TRAVEL Photo Gallery, particularly some of my many Zoo visits across the states. And thus more to my ZOOS I’ve Visited – Photo Links Index gallery page.

AND I also got motivated to start working some on my FAMILY pages, starting with one of the heaviest, fullest, and most emotional pages, titled Death of Juli 1997.   On the Menu under FAMILY – Family of Marriage – LOSSES.

I had already dealt with my dozens of scrapbooks from over the years in my bio books mostly, but I still have two full “scrapbooks” I called Juli Doggett Memorial Book 1 and Book 2. The soft pink covers are perfect for her but two more things I don’t have room for and what would anybody do with them when I die? So I am scanning most of what is in the two binders for perpetuation on the web for at least now (not finished scanning). 

20190722_154151-A-WEB20190722_154231-A-WEB

And one page from these books is the poem I wrote the day after her funeral. The photo of her was the last decent or useable photo I had made of her back in April ’97 on one of our weekend trips from Columbia, this one at Falls Hollow on the Natchez Trace Parkway in front of a waterfall. (And I know! She needed a haircut! But we were busy!)     🙂

My Daughter Juli--001-Cropped More-WEB
Poem easier to read on the web page My Daughter Juli, God’s Precious Jewel

Thanks to those many friends who shared those dark days with me in August 1997! Your presence, help and comfort made all the difference!

¡Pura Vida!

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Independence Day Parade – Audience

Sometimes the people watching the parade are the most interesting thing seen! 🙂 The family portrait above tells a story, I think! And of course the children are always the most photogenic! This slideshow is my last on this year’s Independence Day Parade. See if you can find the 4 people with eyes glued to their device screens (2 are above). Cell phones dominate people around the world!  🙂

And next year I’m adding a new parade by going to the Caribe during Carnival! I’ll photograph the smaller one in Puerto Viejo and not the big one in Limon where I’ve heard it can be dangerous. I don’t want to lose my cameras again! (I was at the Puntarenas Carnival Parade my first year here when my camera bag was snatched from a sidewalk cafe.) But anyway, more parades coming!

¡Larga vida a Costa Rica!

Slideshow: Independence Day Parade Atenas – Audience

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For all aspects of the parade see photo gallery 2018 Independence Day Parade Atenas 

 

All holidays can be good times.    ~John Clayton

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Building A New Info-Rich Website

One of my regular activities when not traveling and photographing nature has been to work on the total rebuild of my personal website while continuing to build a collection of Blog Posts or Articles about being “Retired in Costa Rica” which is now at the same location of my website, charliedoggett.net.

I moved my personal website that was Joomla-generated and continuing to give me technical problems to an easier-to-use WordPress.com hosting service. And since WordPress.com started as a blogging platform and is considered by many to be the best for blogs. I transferred/moved my blog from Blogger.com to WordPress. The blog part transferred everything but the subscriptions so that I still have my blog history of the big move to Costa Rica and now with many more ways to find articles about different subjects I have written on, though most are under “Nature” and the “Places” I have discovered here. But there are some  practical articles about actually moving here, residency processes, healthcare possibilities, and even some more mundane daily life issues for the followers who are considering a move here.

In addition, as with my old website, there are many “static” (WordPress label) pages about me, my adventures, family and  family history as aids to those writing and researching their own family history related to my family lines. i.e. I have several family cemetery inventories with photos, lots of old family photos and reports on family reunions, etc. I also have extensive research recorded on my Uncle Earl Doggett whose plane was shot down in World War II.

For both fun and to get to know me better I have an extensive About Page full of details and fun “Life Stories,” “Biographies,” “Schools,”  “Doing Good,” “Art Lover,” “Photographer,” and more! And a lot of fun and interesting history is wrapped up in my extensive research on the ship or Frigate Charles Doggett in the 1800’s with ties the Mutiny on the Bounty, the nickname of “Old Glory” for the American Flag, the American Civil War, Nashville, and South Sea Island adventures! As I approach the end of my life I will have it all documented or reported on right here on this website and along with the failures and disappointments, some great experiences and accomplishments to help me see that my life did have value. And maybe a tiny bit of inspiration for someone.

So, for a boring, rainy day you might want to explore my website which is still being built. The Header Menu or Top Menu could be divided into these three sections:  (1) BLOG,  (2) LINKED PAGES, and  (3) STATIC PAGES

BLOG

  • Home – has an excerpt from the most current blog post and I may add some more introductory information there later. I have 8 or so favorite Costa Rica Photos that pop up in rotation here full screen which was how I wanted people to enter my website.
  • Blog – This is where all my blog posts reside in reverse chronological order, most current on top, going all the way back to my June 2014 emphasis on “The Costa Rica Decision Process” where I debated the pros and cons online and made the decision to move here publicly on this blog. The drop-down menu has “Categories” (WordPress term) and sub categories to help you find the articles of your interest. Plus the right sidebar or right column has several ways to search for articles by category, tags/subjects, and by date.

MY 2 LINKED PAGES

  • Gallery – My Costa Rica Photo Gallery, “Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA” is my pride and joy and located on SmugMug.com which simply has a better presentation than I can currently get within my WordPress site. That could change later and reside on the website, but for now I encourage you to see my images of Costa Rica and for birder friends I have quite a collection of about 270 Costa Rica bird species that is growing! Plus more birds from neighboring countries!   – – –   For those familiar with my old Pbase photo gallery, it is still up now with all my past commercial and Tennessee photos, travel photos and family photos. But I am slowly moving them to this website in the simple galleries and slideshows that my template provides here, which will help liven up my family and travel articles and will be the new residence of my historical photos, in time!
  • Bookstore – Since before my time in The Gambia I was trying out different online photo book publishers as a way to preserve my many photos which otherwise got lost in closets, computers, or scrapbooks. By around 2003 I settled on Blurb.com as my book publisher of choice, mainly because they provided me with a free “Bookstore” of just my books that continue to be available for order indefinitely. Here you can see the many subjects and trips I have produced books on and even “Review” every page of every book on your computer. Pretty cool! No pressure to buy!   🙂 These books and the above Photo Gallery are the only places for my photos.

“STATIC” PAGES

  • Travel – is where all my many pre-Costa Rica trips will be reported with those photos from Pbase.com, but more than that, with pages on places I lived and about my jobs in these places and just about everything else that doesn’t fit somewhere else on the website!   🙂   I have not started this page yet.
  • Family – I have started with Family History pages and will work back through both my family or origin and family of marriage, probably first with photos, but just barely started at the time of this post writing.  Only Family History now.
  • His Spirit – In some ways I no longer want to be considered “religious, Baptist or Evangelical,” but maybe “a man of faith” or better yet a “Follower of Christ.” I try to explain this here with more writing than photos, though it seemed to be the best place to report on being a missionary in The Gambia, West Africa, thus one of my most exciting adventures is recorded here with lots of old photos or copies of print photos and some of my best stories! It is still in progress, but a lot already here!
  • About – Biography, personal interests and hobbies, and the beginning of a collection of “Life Stories” that I hope will be both entertaining and inspirational. I am still in process of writing these!  🙂  It is my personal history and hopefully not too much ego!
  • Contact – Your basic online contact form and all my addresses and one phone number. At the strong encouragement of WordPress, I removed my email address from this page which they say spammers and bad guys know how to harvest. The form will give you a response on my email and you can collect it that way.   🙂

I’ll try to make future blog posts shorter!

But I felt like I needed at least one thorough explanation of my new website/blog combination. You got it! Contact me with any questions and I try to respond quickly to all comments on blog posts.

Interesting Link

Why we need to break down the barriers between us and nature. 

An article on the BIRDLIFE website.  I have to include a little nature in all posts! The birds require it!    🙂

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Ginger is Gone

ANOTHER PERSONAL-TYPE MESSAGE FOR THOSE WHO KNOW MY FAMILY

Got this email message from Jason/Athena today:

I got the call this morning. Moms gone. I wanted to let you know.

Need some time, but we can talk soon.

My simple reply back to my “lost” son:

Athena, 

Hope you are doing okay. 

You say when and I will call you on my phone bill. Talking is good. I’m still processing it myself. 

Love you, Dad.

We were married for 20 years, so it is still a loss with some deep emotions, even though we divorced 26 years ago and she was quite mean to me. She was the mother of my two precious children, Jason and Juli. The loss of Juli in 1997 was the greatest loss of my life, though the emotional loss of my son has been pretty great too. But who knows? This could be the beginning of a new adventure with Jason/Athena! Our relationship is still fragile but hopeful now. 

And whatever happens, God is good and I am happy with my life in Costa Rica! Pura Vida! Thanks for the encouragement several of you have given already! I choose not to share these personal feeling on Facebook. So thanks to those who read the blog!  🙂

AN INTERESTING ASIDE (Coincident?)
I read and loved the Harry Potter series of 7 books and of course saw all the movies! I think they are the best books written for teens and pre-teens since C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien! I think J.K. Rowling is right up there with them in writing ability! (And she made more money!) BUT ANYWAY:

She said she would not continue the Harry Potter books further, but just came out with a play (in book form of course) that can now be seen in West End London and I expect in the states soon. So the play becomes the 8th book in the series as a continuation of the story (regardless what she said). I just finished it, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a very moving story of how the adult Harry feels he has failed one of his three children, a “different” son named Albus (with a tiny hint of possible gayness coming in future stories). The very exciting and dangerous adventure they participate in together brings the father and son together of course! Yet the play ends with their relationship still up to the two of them with the message that it is still fragile but hopeful now! Just a coincidence that I read it this week, but a nice coincidence in light of the possible new relationship with my son. AND MY LIFE CONTINUES TO BE A SURREAL ADVENTURE!

¡Pura Vida!
¡Dios es Bueno!