Remember when we sat around the fire, and the shadows of the flames danced across her face. And you recalled the words she said, which could have been yours, spoken as though to your own heart. Remember when you read that one line you wrote, and it wasn't until you said it aloud that it came to you that you had done it. That slowly and suddenly, you had liberated yourself from an ache you once struggled to name. Remember the way the volcanoes guarded over you as you awoke into day. As you...

You have never been triggered. There's not a single day in your life when you have been triggered. You're probably shaking your head, but stay with me. Your pain has been triggered. Your wound has been triggered. A mechanism within you has been triggered. An emotional pattern, based on shame or fear, has been triggered. Not you. And this pattern has a reaction, whether only in your body, or also through words or actions. And sometimes, let's admit it, words are actions. But the risk of...

I've lived abroad for over half my life and in Guatemala for 14 years. So there is no moment when I step back from my life and take stock of where I stand more than when I visit loved ones who live very differently to me in the States. There is no moment when the choices I've made toward the path less taken, and I'm not talking about location here, are put up to the mirror. There is no moment when it's easier to dismiss or question my own compass and wily navigation which I myself could...