One of Mexico’s more beguiling traits is its spontaneity. I have found its culture akin to the fluid creativity one finds in nature, or a great city. For example, in the tiniest town you may happen upon a guitar player playing outside a store (without a cup) and passers by who stop and sing a few tunes in three-part harmony, or the constant morphing organism that is a shantytown. In my mind these incidents, and images are small spontaneous gifts, lagniappes, life’s little bonuses. And, I feel there are more in my life here in Mexico than when I lived in the U.S.

The creativity is often related to necessity, such as the beauty in the design of a chicken coop made of mattress skeletons, or this abandoned truck barbershop, reinforcing my belief;

“In proportion as [we] simplify life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, or poverty poverty, or weakness weakness.”

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Back of a Truck Barbershop, Puente de Iztla, Morelos

What was the last occurrence of spontaneous creativity you experienced? Can you share a photo?