Costa Rica’s Independence day rolls around on September 15th. Our freedom came without much fanfare. In fact, the story goes that a guy on mule delivered a note to the powers in charge that said: You’re free from Spain. Still tied to Guatemala, it took a few more years to then break off from Guatemala and declare itself a complete sovereign nation. All of Central America celebrates the 15th of September as a day of freedom.

On that day in Costa Rica, each school child is required to participate in civic activities. There’s a parade in every town and scattered barrios. In August the Costa Rican flag begins to wave on street corners as vendors hope for early sales. The kids take to the street and prepare to march.

The surrounding Central American countries developed armies. In 1948, Costa Rica put down all arms for good. I can’t think that has something to do with it’s unique position of peace and relative prosperity amidst nations of indescribable poverty and violence.

I like our little army of drummers. It helps us keep time with our own beat.

Looking back, I don’t remember the pain in my feet or the ache in my hips. That’s the funny thing about life, we have the ability to remember the good parts. Even the hard parts were good. Here’s until next year, when we’ll try it all over again!

Friday was the celebration of the Anexation of Guanacaste. My daughter dressed up in the typical dress and insisted on braiding her hair. I’ve never been certain what the exact history is of this holiday other than Costa Rica took the province of Guancaste from Nicaragua to call their own. Supposedly, the land wasn’t working out so well for Nicaragua. Take? Give? Like I said, the details are a little unclear, but it’s a good reason to dance.

Costa Ricans are thrilled that Guanacaste is theirs. And since the area is now one of the most popular beach destinations, it’s incredibly important to the bottom dollar. In my life, it means dressing the kids in red, white, and blue and eating beans and rice. Coco is thrilled with any, and every, holiday. Dressing up in this big old skirt adds to the thrill. Before she left for school, the nanny sang one of the traditional songs and Coco twirled back and forth. One of the most commons songs to hear is Punto Guanacasteco, a courting song. The boy says: Que si! and spins his bandana above his head. The girl says: Que no! and with her skirt in her hand, spins around.

Even though the holiday fell on Friday, the government has made the official day Monday. At the end of our three day weekend, Coco and I were reading a book about world peace. (You know, one of those books that are for kids but really help us parents figure IT all out.) On the top of the page was a quote by Anne Frank: How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Who’s Anne? she asked.

I told her how we went to Anne’s house, which is now a museum, when she was just a year and one-half. She asked all sorts of questions about how they ate and played and where the secret doors were. Perhaps I made a mistake of telling the whole story about Anne hiding in the attic; I didn’t sugar coat it. I told her the ending. As I looked back at the page to continue reading, I could tell Coco was going to cry.

Why do they do such things to kids? Just because she was playing and making noise in the attic?

I assured her it wasn’t because of the noise and explained that these really bad people just wanted to kill and hurt others because they weren’t like them. Coco grabbed several of her stuffed animals and placed her chin upon them. She told me she had a plan:

I know what the kids can do next time. We can dance with our skirts and twirl and say: Que no! The boys can take their banaderas and spin them over their heads! That’ll make them go away!

I couldn’t think of a better way to find world peace than to dance. This may become one of my top holidays of all.

Whether it’s a bear in the woods or a monkey in the rain forest, seeing an animal on it’s own, doing it’s thing is one of the greatest treasures I’ve ever experienced. We’re treading heavy on all our lands. Costa Rica battles development right along with the rest of the world. Our “all natural” status is often threatened, and we can leave such destruction behind. Does anyone still doubt that our existence is not connecting to all living things?

Plant a tree; hug a bear, befriend a beetle; watch this video and send it on so at least for a moment, we’re sending these beautiful creatures our thoughts and perhaps a little luck that they’ll still be here to hang around with our grandchildren.

Don’t worry, be hoppy! Please don’t throw any tomatoes. Just watch. You’ll get it. I did.

PS. The missing sound was an operator’s mistake. But it’s kind of nice like this.

This is kind of a big deal for us. Art squeezes and pops up in Costa Rica. There’s a great symphony at the National Theater; there’s jazz concerts; there’s theater; museums; and stuff happening all the time. But it’s sometimes seems so hard to get to. Times are often listed wrong if at all. Ticket sales are confusing; and it’s as though there is a concentrated effort to make it as hard as possible to lug you & your family out to a show.

I am one of those that get out and see it. I’ve watched seasons of symphonies and bunches of ballets. And, I’ve also gone to performances where no one showed up (due to that wrong time listing mentioned above.1) The thing about these cows is they are right there. I love the fact that someone or some group spent all this time creating colors and humor and thoughts about, well yes, about cows. And the beauty of these beasts is that they are giving their performance day and night. Furthermore, since they are so darned heavy, I know exactly where to find them! Imagine what would happen to this world if we all painted a cow for a day.

See the action here: Cows Invade Costa Rica

1. Now you want to here something really funny! I loaded the kids in the car TWO weekends ago because, yes! the times were so confusing & I got it wrong.

And this is how it goes. It’ s so simple, isn’t it?

Please, this is important. Tell two friends about Oink; and they’ll tell two friends; and they’ll tell two friends; and so on; and so on….

Raw, unedited, never-seen-before footage of mysterious dancing cow captured on film. You’ve heard the rumors. Told the tales. Wait no more!

Stand back. The dancing cow is real.