Thinking in narration...

I've been to Mexico two times. The first was to Villahermosa and the surrounding area. I traveled there with my parents and visited a number of ruins, touching each part of them with the thought that I was touching the same spot that my ancestors touched thousands of years ago. The second was to Merida, where my dad grew up, where we visited more ruins, the beach where my grandfather was born, and the shop where I found my wedding dress. My third visit is in 27 days. This time I will be seeing Oaxaca with my parents and, for the first time, my husband. I can't wait.

Every time we go we spend a week there. Though I took a total of 7-8 years of Spanish in high school and college, I am far from fluent. But every time we go I use it as an opportunity to practice and learn more. The first day or two I am intimidated and let my dad do all the talking, but I warm up as the days go on and start to order my own food and go in shops by myself. By the time we board the plane to leave, I find myself thinking in Spanish. I translate in my head not just every thing I say, but every thought I have. Or at least I try to. Both times during the plane ride home I remember not wanting it to end, because they make all the announcements in Spanish, and then translate them to English. I like that. The sound of the language is soothing to me. When I'm feeling low or stressed sometimes I put on my old Julio Iglesias album or some mariachi music. It's calming.

Well today I noticed another kind of change in my thinking. I noticed that instead of just picturing thoughts in my head as images, they were coming through with narration. I was thinking the thought in my head in the form of a third person description. It was crazy. It was good too. So good I thought I should make it into a book. This must be how writers think. It makes sense, I guess. Science and math whizzes probably think of everything in numbers. Or maybe I've just been listening to too many audio books. I have been inundated with words recently. I have been digesting book after book, listening to myself read them in my head as well as having narrators read them to me as I drive.

Regardless, it was a pretty cool feeling, like another rite of passage or something. One more step in the right direction. One more source of inspiration.


The snare my husband snared me with. If writers think in narration, I bet musicians think in music. What language do you think in?