Visitors often note that the people of San Lucas are "very patient."

     These are people who rarely exhibit urgency. Nor do they show boredom. Instead, they peacefully participate in the now. These are people who look back to a past of external control and ahead to a future of only slightly increased options. These are people who plan little more than today, since today may be all there is. And if even today’s plans are changed, they don’t worry, since security was never assumed in the first place. They do not seek excitement. They appear to be content with making the most of the moment, even the most routine moment, whether at home, at church, in the field, at school, at work, or with a friend.

     Home is the center of San Lucas life. At home is the shared sense of both survival and giving life. They wash clothes, prepare meals, sweep floors, tackle homework, appreciate children, and respect parents. The aged bring their stories and their wisdom; the children bring their questions and their wonder. Tradition is carried and culture is secured as boys walk with fathers and gingerly carry machetes while girls weave with mothers and tenderly pat tortillas.

     The Maya know God as Heart of Heaven and Heart of Earth, uniting all in His faithful care. Their response is unmeasured gratitude, never demanding but always beseeching favor for family and field.

     Campesinos plant, tend, and sometimes sleep in their fields; they harvest their crops with painstaking care. The seasons are long, with six months of rain followed by six months of dryness. This cycle continues and is followed, not with urgent expectation, but with understood participation.

     School bristles with child-energy and youth-discovery as students gain knowledge slowly but steadily. Ages vary within grades as individuals move ahead at their own paces. Materials may be old at times and classrooms may bulge, but everything and everyone is always accepted as teachers and students make the very best of every resource.

     Shops are open before sunrise and remain so late into the night. Hours may pass without a customer, but these hours are spent without complaint, for all understand the social and economic situations of their neighbors. Every person entering is treated with deep respect, whether they make a purchase or not.

     Friends walk together slowly, sometimes with a destination, sometimes not. Arms often link together or drape around the other’s waist or shoulder. The time is not for doing, the time is for being, for enjoying the presence of the other and sharing the deepest stories of life.

     When visitors witness the many expressions of peace and patience in the people of San Lucas, they need to realize that it is far deeper than the oft-cited they move slowly, they’re plans are so flexible, or they seem to be able to wait forever. It is a cultural habit of living now, of extracting from each moment all that they can. Nobody knows the day or the hour that will bring life’s end; it is in this moment that the people find, accept, and celebrate the fullness of life.