Through a Naturist Lens

I have been preoccupied with restoring as many posts from the past as I could find. There are more than 500 recovered posts. In the process, I have ensured that the photo record is authentic even though cropped. What I noticed in the process, especially for the past three years, is the presence of large gaps, especially of our time spent in Mexico. It only dawned on my in the past few days that I had put my blog posts on Medium and not on the blog site which existed.

Many of those posts have been erased completely in an attempt to boost my earnings on Medium which is not a naturist medium. There are still some remaining poems and posts that could be moved over, something I will consider before attempting. One thing I do have is my daily journal which covers those missing months. I have decided to continue writing at Medium despite it not being a good source of retirement income.

Enough of the archives for now. We are a week away from flying back to Mexico for four months of sun, sea, sand, and little need for clothing while in our apartment or in locations on our favourite beaches. We will leave our house on Sunday morning to go to our son’s home. We will have some time with him and his children before he takes us to Calgary on Wednesday. We will fly out Thursday morning. Will I publish a few more posts from Canada before we leave? that is an unknown. Yet, I somehow think that I will return to a better presence here.

We had ninety young folk come to the door last night. I was satisfied with the number, a number that reflected the decent weather. It wasn’t that cold in comparison to a number of previous years when thirty plus trick-or-treaters were the norm when snow was on the ground and parkas were needed to be worn.

When it was time for game six of the World Series, I turned on my phone to watch in between giving out the treats of a few varieties of potato chips. We don’t give out chocolate bars or sugar candies. Toronto Blue Jays lost the game which forces a game seven in Toronto this evening. We are having a small gathering of neighbours at our place to watch game seven and share food. We are the only ones of our neighbours who pay extra for sports channels.

It’s November 1st and the temperature for today will reach 16 Celsius or 62 Fahrenheit. Around town, the Halloween decorations will be coming down and Christmas lights and such will take their place before the intense cold makes the task a real challenge.

I got to sleep in this morning, all the way to six-thirty. At my age, waking up early is my normal, usually between five and six o’clock. I am a morning person. When the sun eventually makes it into the living room, I take the opportunity to relax and dream of being warm in Mexico. In four weeks time, I will be in Sayulita, Mexico where my lodgings are nude friendly – aka no clothes except for chilly mornings when a bathrobe is worn.

But I don’t want to dwell on that now. This afternoon, a parade of young folk will be coming to the door in order to get Halloween treats. We typically get anywhere from eighty to a hundred arriving and saying “Trick or Treat.” It’s my job to hand out the treats. And no, I don’t hand them out while wearing nothing. It’s too cold in the porch where I wait. Besides, I would only get into all manner of legal difficulties if I tried. It just isn’t worth taking such a risk. There is no way I will ever change the community in which I live to accept public nudity. This is a small, prairie, conservative town.

On another note, I have put up a significant number of recovered posts at my blog site. I won’t put all the links here. Here are a few that might be of interest:

1. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/self-erasure-then-a-return/
2. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/free-hiking-2014/
3. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/its-the-little-things-that-count/
4. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/why-take-nude-photos/
5. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/is-this-a-new-normal/

I hope you read the posts. If possible, click on Like and leave a comment. Thanks for reading this post.

I have been busy getting more of the archived posts brought to this newest version of Through a Naturist Lens. As well as this blog site, my remaining time at the keyboard is spent on working through a polishing round of my latest novel which will be submitted to a publisher in a couple of weeks. I am fortunate that I don’t need an agent with this regional publisher in my home province.

My website was down for a couple of hours while a techie friend was busy installing Docker onto my server. My external one-terabyte drive was the issue when the server went through a reboot. Long story short, I unplugged the extra drive and all returned to normal. This all happened in the wee hours of the morning.

I have to admit, the approach of winter, bringing low temperatures and frequent cloudy and windy days has been depressing. I have found myself slowing down with my editing tasks. It’s strange how much the weather affects moods. I blame my mood on the seasonal shift. Despite the fact that I know I will be in sunny and warm Mexico in just over four weeks, I am not immune to the natural world around me slowing down.

Late autumn is depressing. The year is dying. Plants have shrivelled up and trees have become skeletons — I guess it is appropriate when one thinks that skeletons are a mainstay of Halloween decorations. 

On another note, I have bought extra travel insurance for my time in Mexico. The Blue Jays are in the World Series, and my Ottawa Senators are finally beginning to win a few games.

Now, for a listing of more posts revived and placed on my Naturist Lens blog site:

1. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/a-month-in-thailand/
2. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/a-decision-to-change-direction/
3. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/emerging-out-of-psychoanalysis/
4. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/am-i-a-buddhist/
5. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/all-saints-day-2012/

We were away from home for almost a week. It was time well spent with family. When I am with family, my laptop sits idle. It’s the way I want it. Being away also means that the list of things that need my attention when I return goes up.

Unknown to some of you, is that we go to Mexico for four months. The plane tickets have been purchased and the landlady has confirmed we still have our lodgings which have been our Mexico home for the past three years. Today, I booked our hotel room near the airport the night before we fly. There are still other tasks needing attention such as getting Pesos and deciding what comes with us. We don’t take more than one bag and one backpack each for the four-month stay.

Taking care this website’s access was one of the major tasks. As well as making that cleaner, I have put together the complete submission package for my latest book-in-progress [written and being edited] to be given to a reputable publisher in the province of Canada where I live. That task was a pressure intensive one. It’s done and now I will have to wait, hoping to hear from the publisher within the next four months.

Now for a few more recovered posts from the past:

1. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/accepting-differences-with-grace/
2. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/dark-memories-of-mother/
3. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/i-am-an-introvert/

Don’t forget to click on “like” and leave a comment on any or all of my posts. Thanks in advance.

I’m stuffed. This year saw a change in menu for our Thanksgiving dinner. BBQ ribs, perogies, and green beans were joined by traditional sour-leaf cabbage rolls. Why the break from tradition where we have always had turkey and all of the fixings? Well, we were alone. Our children were having their Thanksgiving dinners with the families-in-law. Even our neighbours had company. No expectations meant we could eat what we wanted, not what was expected.

We could have broken with tradition other years, but for some reason we didn’t. Doing what is expected is hard-wired for most of us. Though I am more comfortable not wearing clothing, I do what is expected when others are around – I keep my clothing on. Yet the moment I am freed from the need to conform, off come the clothes. Okay, I’ll amend that since I live in Canada by adding in when temperatures either in the house or outdoors are nude-friendly.

I am thankful for living with a woman who loves me. She knows who I am and has accepted that I am different, walking to the beat of a drum not many others would hear or follow even if could. We are as different as night and day. I don’t try and change her, not intentionally. We got past that impulse to remould the person we fell in love with, finally realising that there was a reason we fell in love in the first place. It was the differences which brought us together. We’ve been a thing since the September long weekend of 1970.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff. I have added a few more posts for the archives:

1. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/the-darkness-is-back/
2. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/recovering-thanks-to-taking-a-risk/
3. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/meditation-au-naturel/
4. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/nude-in-a-park-in-china/

Click on the links, read, and then leave a comment. Is it worth my time and effort to bring these posts back to life? Oh, and by the way, I’ve added “share” and “like” options. I’d truly appreciate you using both. Thanks.

Well, that was rude. I woke up to -3 Celsius with a wind blowing at 60+ kilometres per hour making it feel like -11 degrees. To make matters worse, it was wet with a mixture of rain and snow. It was a good time to turn on the fireplace. It is official, we are on the cusp of winter with slightly more than two months until it is officially winter. The snow won’t stick, but it was enough for a few young kids to make a snowman.

By the time I wrote this post, no snow was left. The ground is too warm relative to the air temperature. It will be a few more weeks, I hope, before the serious, deep frost puts the lawn and garden to sleep until April. And yes, I had no desire to go outside without clothing.

It was a good day to stay indoors and write, do some editing, and play a few games on my cell phone – yes, I play games. card games for the most part. We are alone for this holiday. We had one part of our family here last weekend for an early celebration, made pumpkin pie for ourselves this weekend, and will visit the youngest members of our family next weekend. That’s what happens when you don’t live close to any of your children.

For all of our Canadian family and friends, Happy Thanksgiving. Our American family and friends have to wait more than six weeks to celebrate.

Just an update, I have added four more posts with one written written while I was in China in 2011

1. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/turning-sixty-two/
2. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/final-visit-to-the-hills-2011/
3. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/waiting-to-go-to-china/
4. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/we-are-back-home-in-china/

I get up early. It’s not by choice as it means by the evening I am tired. A late night usually means a ten or ten-thirty bedtime. Not many weeks ago, it was already daytime rather than not even a hint of an approaching dawn. I am a genuine morning person. Assuming that every day begins in darkness, at least by the calendar and the clock, and ends in darkness, there is no way to avoid darkness in our lives.

Okay, this is sounding like some sort of excuse to talk about psychology. You should be warned, I have this tendency to bring in psychological themes here. I actually can’t help it. It is part of my introverted nature and my background and training as a psychotherapist.

My wife is still sleeping, at least for a little longer. When she gets up, we will sit by our fireplace with our drapes wide open in the background. With coffee in hand, we talk together before sitting silently and sipping freshly ground coffee. It’s our morning ritual when the morning temperature is below ten degrees Celsius. It’s four degrees outside in case you are wondering. Remember, Canada is the true North, strong and free – at least for now.

We have problems. We have fascists in our own house. You know, the people who want to desperately control others. Oh, just in case you didn’t know, I could be labelled as anti-fascist [antifa]. Yes, I am also a naturist as well. You see, being antifa also means believing in freedom to be who you are and empathetic. I can choose to wear clothing or not when it is good for me and those around me. That is an important distinction. Freedom isn’t just about me doing or saying what I want, when I want.

My next-door neighbour to the east has a young family. The family is a recent addition to the neighbourhood. They are good people, and friendly people as well. With a nine-year-old daughter and a year old set of twins, there is no desire on my part to risk them remaining good neighbours. So, I choose my time and place for nudity accordingly. I think you get the picture.

On another topic, I have put up a few more of my early posts, dated with their original dates for publishing. Check them out. I wrote four posts that survived, while in Costa Rica in 2010.

1. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/playa-jaco-costa-rica/
2. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/cooking-in-costa-rica/
3. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/red-man-in-playa-jaco/
4. https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/the-thinker-in-costa-rica/

Please leave a comment for each post, if you could. It helps me know if they have been read.

It makes it tough to be nude outdoors when the temperatures drop significantly. It is what it is, there’s no way to undo the weather. The only real option is to put clothing back on, or find a different place, a warmer place where being clothing free will have a reasonable chance of happening. Luckily, we have a place where we stay for winter months in Mexico. Our plane tickets have been purchased and all that remains is to wait.

I am slowly rebuilding this site and now have a few of my earliest posts published here:

1. First post from December 2004 when we were in Cuba – https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/christmas-holiday-in-cuba/
2. Second post from February 2007 in Sanya, China – https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/sanya-china-winter-break/
3. Third post from March 2009 in Yucatan, Mexico – https://rglongpre.ca/naturism/yucatan-mexico-2009/

As I rebuild, I will include links for you, the reader, so you can check them out. In the process, some of my old posts will likely be ignored as being boring. As well, nudity will be mostly implied rather than ‘in your face.’ Today’s image is a good example. Why? Well, this site will be easily discoverable by many people in my life, most of whom [not all] know I have a tendency to not wear clothing when it’s possible. None are naturists as far as I know.

And yes, even our youngest grandchildren 6 and 8, are aware as they have frequently seen the images on the wall above our bed.

Those images were taken in Cuba in 2004. They are discrete, suitable for general viewing. The door to our bedroom is never closed making them viewable by anyone in the house, including visitors who pass by the door on the way to the bathroom. Because of keeping nudity somewhat ‘safe,’ there has been no community or extended family backlash. I know who I am, as do they. And that is all that matters.

I have given up my account with a Canadian webhosting company in favour of hosting my own site. The primary reason was simply a matter of cost. I was able, with help from my son-in-law, to set up a server on my old Dell laptop. And now, I am able to do the same as before, only for free. It’s a win in my opinion.

The only problem is that I will have to recreate the archives as they no longer exist in a form I can export to this new site. Why, I have no idea. I blame it on WordPress.Com. With that said, I beg you to have patience as I slowly go forward with the resurrection of this site.