Happiness and Learning
Being happy is a form of resistance
Dear Beautiful Readers,
I got sucked into a vortex of learning and just being the last month. After fighting a bout of insomnia down here in El Salvador and taking a week trip to Guatemala’s, Antigua, I am back in El Salvador and have finally settled into beautiful, green Central America. This amazing book titled Sastun helped me settled in. As I finished packing for Guatemala I grabbed a book really fast. I grabbed Sastun. It was the perfect book to grab. Into the vortex of greenery, Mayan history, and rain we went as my cousin’s car drove us over the border to Guatemala. The landscape turned from luscious palm trees, ferns, bromeliads, huge monsteras to a deep fog as we got closer to Antigua. We arrived at night.
The next morning as I stepped out of the hotel I was surrounded by three volcanoes: Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango. Fuego is still an active volcano. And surrounding the volcanoes there was a blanket of greenery. So many plants, trees, birds, animals, and insects, alive and thriving in those luscious forests. It was also cooler in Antigua than in Santa Tecla. After taking a long walk and eating a big lunch we all came back to the hotel. I decided to stop fretting over the things I couldn’t change and instead take in what was available to me at the moment. I lay on my bed looking out the window that had a view of the courtyard with all its beautiful plants and flowers. When I was exhausted from working as a teacher what is that I had asked for? Time. And now instead of seeing it as a bad thing that I didn’t have a partner to go explore Antigua with at night, I took the time available as a gift. I opened Sastun and immediately realized that I was living my dream and was blessed. I had no interruptions to read the best book I have read this year and it all took place in Central America with parts taking place in Guatemala. I was living inside the book. When I stopped fretting my sleep returned and I went to sleep with the sound of the water fountain falling in the courtyard.
To have time, to rest, to be happy is an act of resistance. The more we don’t have time, the more we are unhappy the more we consume and do unhealthy escapism. I hope you find time to rest, to say “no” to things that sound fun but rob you of your alone time, and I hope you don’t buy more things we do not need. Let me leave you with some things that have made me happy lately. (The next post will be all about the book I just finished reading, Sastun.)
Things that brought me happiness lately and might bring you happiness:
Sastun by Rosita Arvigo: Goodreads (If you love me you will not buy it on Amazon but order it from a small bookstore.)
Interview with Native American Eric Michael Hernandez on his new short film called Courage: Youtube Interview
Going for walks inside museums and also forests
Hope you all are well and I’ll write some more soon!