Before I went to Guatemala, everyone kept asking me “Are you excited?”; my response was always the same– “No, not yet. I have so much to get done. I’ll be grateful and excited once I’m on the plane.”

The days leading up to my trip were filled with business, tutoring, purchasing supplies. I left on a Monday, and the Saturday beforehand, I spent doing last minute preparations– trips to the different stores to buy what I needed from my list: construction gloves, first aid supplies, baby wipes, pants to wear while we worked.  The list went on and on, and most of it wasn’t stuff that I had at home. Three stores later, I had everything. I kept thinking about the manual labor as I did my shopping

That morning, I had talked with my acupuncturist and observed that I really felt like what I needed was physical, manual labor, where I would not be analyzing, thinking, etc, in other words, in my head.  The act of physical labor keeps me in the present. She had noted, “Well, then this trip should be perfect medicine.” Little did we know how accurate her statement would be.

Sunday was a blessing in disguise: my friend and I had planned to visit DC and each other.  Early in the morning, she texted me to say that she had a migraine and needed to reschedule.  This reschedule allowed me to ease into my trip with a bit more gentleness and slowness than I’d expected.  I cleaned my room, remembering that my mom always used to say “It’s so much better to return from vacation to a clean space.” I went to see Dark Knight Rises with my siblings and parents. (That needs its own blog post).

I packed slowly, deliberately, and then I slept.