Hello, my name is Abby Smith and I used to write a blog called “Very Simple, Very Easy Very Good. It had a cute tag line; ” I write about the complexities of the simple life”. It was actually about what happens when ridiculously idealistic people move to another country without enough money and try to live an ridiculously unrealistic “self sustainable” life.
It was a pretty entertaining blog. Lots of humor, tragedy, beauty, loss, and hard won triumphs. Mexico made writing a blog easy, there was mayhem most weeks(mayhem is great fodder for blog posts) and I didn’t have an job. I could put writing first and washing our underwear in the creek…whenever. As long as we had beans and tortillas I was free to create.
It was great.
Except for all the horrors, the poverty, and what I felt was the likelihood that my husband was working himself to death.
So, we moved to Nicaragua. We got real jobs, the kind you get paid for! Our life now is the antithesis of our lives in Mexico. We live in a castle in comparison, with a pool and an ocean view, we have unlimited wine, hot water, and electricity(most days :). There are no snipers joining us for dinner, no vicious old neighbors, no babies to fail.
It’s great.
Except, we arrived in Nicaragua with a desiccated marriage, deteriorated health, and moral quandaries. How do you begin again with someone you’ve suffered so much with you both feel dead inside? What does one do with tattered ideals? How does a political expatriate reconcile living in a US bubble in a third world country?
So, that’s what I’ve been doing for the two years I have been absent from vsvevg: resurrecting a relationship, revamping my belief systems, and ultimately myself. I like to do that about once a decade. I guess that’s what this blog will be about for the time being, and probably some travelogue, some books, art…maybe even a bit poetry.
Now that things are truly, Very Simple, Very Easy and Very good.
VSVEVG (very simple very easy very good) 
I love the transition you have made from the before to the present. GREAT Start.
Thanks Margie! xo
So very good to hear from you again, Abby. We’re back in the US missing Thailand, but life is pretty good here. We try to spend several months a year in Thailand but I’m enjoying fishing offshore in my little boat.
Thank you Dannie, it’s good to hear from you too! There are many small boats and fishermen here. I will think of you next time I see one : )
It is so good to hear from you! I was thinking it was about time for you to come back here, but maybe not… You have been on an incredible journey and hope to hear much more from you. All the best to you both!
Thank you David, we hope to visit son, but something else always seems to come up. But, I will let you know the next time we’ll be around. xo
Hi David, good to hear form you too!! Yea, things change I recently moved my mother here, so we’ll be here awhile. You should think about a visit. xo
Looking forward to hearing more from you Ab.
Thank you Kent, and thanks for following me here 🙂
So wonderful to hear your “voice” again … raw and real as always. Looking forward to more!
You know me, raw and real 🙂
It’s wonderfully good to see you again! Vsvevg!
Thank you Ka!
Welcome back Abby.
Thanks Roy 🙂
Hi Abby! Hi Filipe! Great to hear from you and learn you are doing well. Looking forward to new VSVEVG’s. Also looking forward to seeing you in Chicago, hopefully soon. Be sure to bring Filipe. By the way…regarding the photo in your post: that is a really good look for you.
Love ya, Uncle Bri
Thanks on all accounts Brian! Afriad you will have to visit Nicargua, it will be awhile before we return. much love and thanks for reading! xo
looking forward to a hearing about your new life…Caqt has kept me up on some of the “exciting” things going on in you all’s life….much love!
Thanks Sid! Good to hear from you!! hope all is in well on your world 🙂
looking forward to hearing about your new life…Catt has kept me up on some of the “exciting” things going on in you all’s life….much love!
Welcome back! I have been checking in once or twice a fortnight in case you had written anything. Looking forward to reading your words again, it is great to have you back!
Thank you Ste J, it is good to be back! And thanks for checking in on me 🙂 Havent quite gotten in he swing of things yet, but I will!
Abby! It’s so wonderful to hear from you. I can’t believe it’s been two years since we’ve seen you. My, how time flies! I have thought about you and stopped by a few times to see what you were up to. It sounds like you guys are on the right track…keep writing for us, please! xo
So good to hear form you Britt, thanks for sticking with me. It feels pretty arduous right now, like what am I gonna write? When? Why? But it is still good to be here 🙂 And good to be back in touch with my friends in the blogoshere. xo
Oh Darling – how wonderful to find you here! I’ve prayed all this time that you and Felipe are well and prospering wherever you have landed on this planet. Trials, tribulations, yes. They come, they go. Do hang on mi quierda, hang on. As we get older it is so precious to have history with someone. What drew you to one another is still there, always there, under the flotsam and jetsam perhaps, but still there.
Write. Write. Bleed on the page. Your voice is so powerful. I’ve missed it. Selfish I know. Yet still, I’ve looked for you here, and today brought JOY as I saw you’ve returned. Bless you and yours and happy trails. Stay safe. It is ALL the Life Buzz – living in the Zone of Aliveness. And with that comes peril, sadness, frustration, fear, heartache, JOY, and everything in between.
Bless you both. And welcome back.
So Lovely to hear form you Barbara!!! And thank you for the support an advice, it is so good to be back.
Much love to you my Friend xoxo