It's used as a phrase, greeting, or just something to say when the time is right. It's kind of like saying "Go Dawgs" but does not have to be summoned by a big win. Here, everyone is a victor of some kind. A warmth circulates throughout this wonderful country and there is nothing you can do to prevent it from reaching you.
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| Student Union porch |
I will be studying Creative Writing and Photodocumentary in this wonderful country for about the next month or so and only hope that pura vida becomes a part of my body to a degree which I cannot ever remove it. Purity goes further than life in Costa Rica. Pure action, word, deed, thought, practice, love, and living are all encouraged and carried out all in these words.
Sure, we can look at this as a cliche way of saying that we need to strip ourselves of impurities and focus on nature and what is important. I'm not condemning that in any way. Honestly, I don't think we should be solely one material, idea, or substance. I don't like being put in a box. But once we find something to be passionate about or something to have faith in whether it's conservation, Jesus, friendships, or anything else under the sun -- that is what needs to become pure. Stick to your guns. Be confident with who you are. Don't get FOMO. Even be inconsistent if that means you are staying pure to yourself and what you believe in.
Perhaps pura vida is not quite a simple phrase then. To me, it does not mean to hone in one specific thing and let that create or shape your purity, it means to live well and to love well without relinquishing fragments of who you are. Live a life of selflessness and ambition, pride and humility, mixture and purity.
PURA VIDA!
More to come later!
