I started 2020 much in the same way I ended 2019: spending four nights, mostly in solitude, in a jungle near the beach. Both these trips are the longest "solitude trips" I’ve ever taken. For someone who claims to be as independent as I do, I have actually always had a complicated relationship with being …
Continue reading "“My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude”"
Since 2016, I’ve ended each year with the same ritual: I go to a beach alone, and carry with me all the gratitude journals I’ve completed throughout the year (I’m not disciplined enough to write each day, but I do write gratitude at least a few times a week). Then, I sit for hours on …
Continue reading "“You were set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment.”"
A few nights ago, at a pizza shop, two men in line heard my friend and I speak English and asked us where we were from. After we exchanged introductions -- they were visiting from Europe -- I asked them how they were liking their visit to Brazil. One man responded: “It’s been okay...Though, there …
Continue reading "“There are too many people from here, here.”"
Before coming to Rio de Janeiro, I had an image of Brazil as a place not quite like the rest of Latin America, but still a part of it. So as a person of Mexican and Ecuadorian ancestry who speaks zero Portuguese, I didn't know what to expect from Brazil culturally. I didn't know whether …
Continue reading "Notes on Latin America Things (First weeks in Rio de Janeiro)"
During this last trip to Mexico City, I visited Frida Kahlo's house for the first time. To me, the trip felt like almost a pilgrimage, and so I was naively surprised by how crowded it was. It seemed weird to have hundreds of seemingly conventional people, waiting in a two-hour line to learn about the …
Continue reading "Frida Kahlo, and those who do not dive into the wreck"
Today I am thinking about the afternoon I spent walking through Madrid. I ended up on a park bench, sitting next to three young people in the only sliver of sunlight still hitting the lawn between two buildings in downtown. They offered me a beer, and I drank one while listening to them strum "Big …
As I reflect on community this week, I realize this blog has now grown to its own larger community of people -- many of whom I now don't know. Each time I get notified of another subscriber, I wonder "What brings this person here? How did they find us? What's their story? What topics/questions do …
Continue reading "On traveling “unanchored” and discovering authentic community"
Perhaps needless to say after this unexpected two-week hiatus from this blog: it’s been a pretty difficult time for writing. After leaving my job in August, I’m entering Month 7 of full-time freelancing again, and inevitably, that's primetime for feeling the downsides of this lifestyle: burn out from juggling several projects at once on odd …
Continue reading "“All of creativity is pushing and letting”"
I celebrated my 31st birthday this week (sorry that caused the delay in getting this out...) and in the spirit of Pema Chödrön -- "Never underestimate the power of compassionately recognizing what's going on inside" --I'd like to admit that I spent the weeks before my birthday feeling pretty terrified of the uncertain mess I …
Continue reading "“You want to ask, am I lonely?” – 31st birthday reflections"
Unlike vacation travel, every time I've spent time living in another country, it feels like both a lot is happening to me, and nothing at all. In many ways, I'm going about my days normally --checking email, working on freelance projects in a cafe, buying groceries, taking the metro. And yet still I think I …
Continue reading "Last days in Coyoacán + First days back at “home”"
Amanda E. Machado 