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  I've settled into an Airbnb space in the village of Santa Catarina Barahona, about 20 minutes southwest of Antigua. Being out in a village makes time in Antigua fun and exciting. Sometimes I get off the bus there and feel like a kid arriving in Disneyland. If I had accommodations there, it would all get a little old due to how hectic and congested it can get with Guatemalans and visitors alike crowding the streets and sidewalks.  This is not meant to be the kind of travel writing that's all about amazing adventures and fascinating encounters with the "natives", or finding a new romantic "love interest". This is more about moving into a new space and finding it has no windows or that a cold spell means there's not much to do in the morning besides read under the covers. It's these moments where a kind of deconstruction of how we come to judge things happens, and I've found it leads to empowerment .  It's about those moments of disconnection ...
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  On Love, by poet David Whyte "Life seems to ask us to fall in love in many different ways: with a person, a place, a work, or even, a far-off life we can only imagine for ourselves. In desiring many of these deeper states of belonging and intimacy, none of us are ready for what we have to give up to get what we want. Before receiving our rewards, taking the path of love always has its costs and its vulnerabilities but refusing the path of love also has its steep costs and its equivalent and often demonstrated wounds. Whether we refuse love or risk ourselves in love there is actually no sincere path a person can take without having their hearts broken. We live and move most courageously through life by risking ourselves and by putting ourselves in some peril for a worthwhile goal, a worthwhile person, or a worthwhile life. Love may seem to be always about transactions, for good and for bad, but the exchanges in real intimacy are far deeper, far more disturbing and far more nouris...
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  January 18, 2026 Following love. I'm defining love broadly to mean openness, presence, and warm acceptance. If I regularly find those things  in myself and in others in a place, I'm going to return there and indulge as it fits to do so! Of course, we find those things with groups of friends and relatives, but I'm talking about those qualities as "a way of being" in relation to other people in general. Following love is also finding the peace and silence in one's self- where acting out of love comes natural and is not something done because "we should". The image above is of Volcan de Fuego, which erupts regularly with puffs of ash like that. I see it from my room as well as almost anywhere in this vicinity while I'm out. I love it as a reminder of how precious life is, that we are always on an edge, and that the power of the earth reigns over us. ********************* Coming here this time of year set me up for a different launching than coming...
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