No matter how far I may get in life, whatever exotic treasures I accumulate, however wide I might end up travelling, it doesn’t mean as much as the people I meet along the way. We all have this, even those of us who stay put, but so often we miss the point, counting destinations like notches on a bedpost.

I would rather spend 5 years somewhere really special, becoming part of a community, loving the people I spend every day with, getting to know them as if I might someday grow old with them, than 5 seemingly impressive months jetsetting through 10 countries.

Blowing through certain small towns on the US roadtrip a few years back left me with that longing feeling of what could have been. I remember all the fascinating people I met there like it was yesterday. How I wish I could pick up where I left off. How I have longed to actually LIVE in Bisbee, or Jerome… and even getting a tiny bachelor spot in Austin with a deck onto the river and a second-hand kayak.

I was living on Ometepe Island for 6 months, but feel like I haven’t even started my life there yet. Most of all I long to go back there and continue what was begun. I never would have imagined I’d grow up to be living in a brightly painted Hostel on an island for months, where I couldn’t speak the language, and find myself sooooo completely at home from the first moment I set eyes on the place. The people there at the Central made it so impossibly comfortable for me there it was hard to not fall in love with the place. Even right now, and ever since I first got on the ferry in August last year and had my first sight of the volcano, Ometepe IS my most desired home. And there are a few amazing souls there from countries I haven’t even been to yet who hold pieces of my home with them. But most particularly, the one holding the largest and most vulnerable piece of all has always been my beloved from Brazil…

How I MISS your smile…

How I miss laughing together… nose to nose… breathing each other in. Falling into your kind brown eyes through the temple doors and dancing across all your rooms “all the day and all the night”. How you always tried and failed every single time to fall asleep nestled on my lap, but couldn’t rest until I was safely tucked in by your side and woven across your heart.

How I am missing you. I don’t know how much longer I can do this.