Guatemala

I left Guatemala 14 days ago, but i find that Guatemala has not yet left me, and i hope that she never will. I can't shake the faces of the villagers walking along the well worn path cut into the luscious green landscape passing by out the window, carrying precarious packages on their heads, braids in their hair, weather on their faces and bright blue and green fabrics wrapped around their waists.

here are some photos from my travels in Guatemala/Mexico:

Lake Aititlan - where hippies go to die

Lake Aititlan pier

Semuc Champey - National Park pools

Volcan Pacaya - active volcano hike

our host momin Xela, Doris - kind heart, beautiful prayers, amazing cook

viva la Mexican plazas

Along the way: we met so many interesting/amazing people, learned a lot about Central American history (and the role America played in many civil wars), we tried new foods, like bean logs and plantains for dinner, we climbed many heights and looked out over many new trees and hills, surrounded by such beauty and life and color, we asked tough questions about corruption, poverty, and injustice...

I didn't have too many expectations going into the trip - Brian Mclaren, in his book, Generous Orthodoxy, says, "I just try to take it all in, ("beholding as in a mirror the glory of God"), to receive it as a gracious gift, to let it do to me whatever it will do to me. I know that in so doing, God is blessing me, transforming me from the I who I have been, creating the I who I am becoming. To be in this creatio continua, this ongoing and emerging creation, in front of all this beauty and glory means there can be no last word..."

I think of the subtitle to the movie about Che Gueverra, "before he changed the world he let the world change him." There's still a lot i have to learn from the world, my journey is not over, my questions aren't answered, but maybe that's not the point - these feelings inside me reiterate what i've always wanted to believe, that life's not about destinations and answers - it's a journey and it's full of questions.

Lord, may i never be so settled that i stop questioning what's going on around me and how you want me to address what's going on around me. May i never be so settled, so confident, so comfortable that i think i have arrived, that i have already attained all this. May i never forget my neighbors in Guatemala, the ones i have met and the ones i know not, your world, your children, teach me to love them as i love myself. Thank you for your grace, gracias por tu amor. amen.