Last night, alone, I listened to the beautiful melancholic music of Eva Cassidy, which matched my mood. It is hard to return from Paradise and get back to the same old same old.

Costa Rica was, as my brother described it, "magical". Not one of the things can be singled out as the ingredient that made it magical; it was a combination of everything. The heat and humidity of the tropics stopped us in our tracks and caused us to not only shed our warm clothes, but our hectic pace, our quick step, our watches and our schedules so that we slid into a slower pace as seamlessly as a river melting into the sea. No longer were cell phones needed to coordinate meeting times; we naturally and effortlessly came together and separated, as the tide of the day ebbed and flowed. I miss the first knock of the morning, which was predictably Lily. Others would wander over to have fruit and Corn Flak-ees, hard boiled eggs and coffee. Somewhere mid morning the "little girls", Lila, Camille, Shira and Lily, would pounce on the "big girls", Mikayla and Leela, to rouse them. Then the routine of massaging sunscreen into every exposed inch of skin would take place before we all gathered towels to head down to Playa Blanca, Playa Mancha or the pool.

No one spoke of work; instead there was an unspoken agreement to not bring up anything that would remind us of life north of the border. We all needed to decompress. As the coils within us unwound, I saw us all smile so much, become silly and irreverent. Grownups played like kids in the pool. Evenings were occupied with Boggle, Scrabble and Yahtzee mixed with small talk and laughter. There was an ease that all 15 of us flowed together and that was part of what was magical.

Costa Rica is full of beauty that to me seemed larger than life. What I could recognize as Home Depot house plants were growing wild and ten times as large. The verdant jungle spilled into the resort. Wild animals such as 2-3 foot iguanas, white-faced monkeys, scavenger raccoons and scarlet macaws were commonplace. And each time we saw these creatures, we gasped in wonder.

I must mention the Costa Rican people. The resort we stayed at, Punta Leona, was full the week we were there, and at least 90 percent of the guests were Costa Rican. I found the people to be very kind and extremely polite. Everywhere we went the people were so helpful and friendly.

Most of the time was spent going to the beach or the pool, but some of us did go on a couple of excursions. The most memorable for me was the canopy tour, where we were strapped into harnesses and rode zip lines from tree to tree at the top of the jungle. I got a longer ride than anyone else in our group when I didn’t make the platform and slid all the way back to the center of the longest zip line, dangling above the jungle floor a hundred feet up. I felt like a fly caught in a spider web. One of the guides had to come and rescue me. I was laughing the whole time, even as I tried to maneuver myself back to the platform by going backwards hand over hand.

The last day we were there was my actual birthday. When I woke up and opened the bedroom door, Mikayla and Leela had decorated the whole kitchen/sitting room. It was beautiful. That day I got to snorkel and kayak, lay on the beach and play in the pool with most of my favorite people in the whole world. In the evening we all went to dinner. The restaurant was completely open, meaning no walls. It is surprisingly very un-buggy. We sat in the open air, with just a roof over our heads. No sweaters were needed. As the “little girls” brought me gifts, I got up and thanked everyone for coming. It meant so much to me. And I felt tears in my eyes and heard my voice crack! But I don’t cry. Well, I guess now that I have reached the old age of 50, I am becoming more sentimental. I heard that is one of the things that can happen to old people.

This is the best way to slide into a new decade: invite your closest people to paradise, and have everyone celebrate you!