The birds in my new ‘hood begin singing their Hallelujah Chorus before dawn. But they don’t wake me. I’m already awake, sitting up in bed with my coffee tray beside me, watching the Sky Show from my bedroom windows. It’s glorious.

I watch as the sky lightens – from coal black, when the shimmering lights of San Miguel look to me like low-lying stars (my very own Milky Way) — to royal purple, to a hazy blue-gray with a slash of peachy-pink along the horizon. Then, from this pink blanket, the sun emerges slowly, and a new day has begun in SMA.

I have yet to learn how to operate my new digital TV (I don’t even know how to turn it on), but I don’t care. The Sky Show is entertainment enough for me.

On my first night here in my new apartment in Colonia Independencia last week, there was a full moon nearly filling up the sky. The other morning I saw in the distance three hot-air balloons rising along with the sun. And on Monday evening, just before sunset, in the midst and mist of a pre-seasonal rainfall, there was a magnificent rainbow arching over the cityscape. With such natural, captivating beauty, I think, who needs TV?

Now for your mini tour: One wall of both the bedroom and the living room area of what I’m calling mi hermoso refugio (my beautiful refuge) is all glass, leading onto the terrace, all overlooking San Miguel de Allende down below. Just beneath the terrace is a bright, new children’s park, resonant with children’s laughter during the day, a basketball court to the right of it, and a well lit, well loved soccer field to the left, in which the older boys play exuberant fútbol nearly every night.

I’m already unpacked and pretty much all settled in. It’s a small apartment by San Miguel (but not by NYC) standards, and I don’t, after so many moves in my lifetime, own much stuff. I’ve managed to keep only the most functional and sentimental items and to buy only bare necessities. But taken together, everything seems to fit like jigsaw puzzle pieces here. I guess you could say I’ve become a minimalist in my older age.

I hope never to move again as long as I live. I have arrived, gracias a dios. The neighborhood birds and I are all singing now from our respective nests, “Hallelujah!”

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For the backstory, please read previous WOWs from the past six months about this move:

www.blog.bonnieleeblack.com/here-we-go-again/

www.blog.bonnieleeblack.com/the-table/

www.blog.bonnieleeblack.com/a-new-view/