These Days...

These days…

Are filled with sunshine and relaxation, of afternoon hikes through pine bedded forests, of early bedtimes, of making cookies and cakes with neighbors, spending holidays enjoying the company of my Nicaraguan families, camping in forests and canyons, getting alone-time for the first time in a year, and getting to know both the dark and gold sides of being in a true relationship.

These months…

Are filled with teaching teaching teaching, learning learning learning, of reading mounds of books in the morning sunlight under my orange tree, trips around the country with my dear friend Kate and my brother Cory, heart pounding African drum festivals, beaches and lagoons and monkeys and boating and boogie boarding and adventuring, of fa-la-la Christmas choir concerts, and beach trips with Cusmapan kiddos who’d never seen the ocean, of holding monkeys and ocelots, and watching America finally make a hopeful political choice.

I have not written much these days, I am too busy with life. I go to bed every night thinking of how quickly days pass, at times wishing I could put a halt on this hourglass when I see the grains of sand slipping away before my eyes. I am happy, relatively healthy (though I’ve had a cold for the past two months), and deeply fulfilled by the simplicity of my existence here.