Midnight Sun

My internal clock is screwed up, not because of the time change, but because where I now am in aplace where it never gets dark…duskish maybe, but not dark. Yes, here I am back in Alaska waking up at 5 a.m. to me what seems to be midday. I have to say that Alaska is beautiful. I mean really beautiful. Flying in a peaked out the window to find snow-caked mountains carpeted below me, pressed up the edge of the Prince William Sound. This morning I woke up to a landscape of green backdropped by white mountains and a blue sky. Guatemala is beautiful too, especially when one is standing on top of a volcano watching the sun rise behind other, distant volcanoes. But the dust, bus fumes and trash piles, which are in abundance in Guatemala, take their toll after a while. Despite this though, I really do miss Guatemala…I miss the little things. On the morning I left from Guat City I wrote this in my journal, “It’s the little things that are racing through my pulse at speeds so fast that I can’t keep up: the feeling of speaking Spanish to communicate in everyday actions; buses so full of people that breathing becomes a chore; drinking coffee at La Luna and drinking fresh squeezed orange juice off the street; endless conversations with friends; jumping in the car with whoever it may be that offers a ride; volcanic peaks and lush jungle; chocobananos, mangos and avocado; walking the horribly maintained streets of Xela…” Many times over the last few days I have stopped and noted simply how beautiful and good life is. My friend from Germany who I spent my hours, days and weeks with in Guatemala wrote me a little piece of advice in an e-mail yesterday… a piece of advice that I am trying as best as possible to take to heart. She said, “Don't be sad that it is over, be glad that it happened.” I am glad that it happened.