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A Note On Satisfaction
Let’s say you’re on a walk, and sit down to take a snack at a beautiful tree. When satisfied, you continue walking and just slightly down the road you see an even more beautiful tree…
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Ants
Ants are on a pilgrimage, each carrying their own burden for the sake of their future self and to build a world for their family. Ants follow the person in front of them and lead…
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What If The Whole World Hated You?
First, ask yourself: What if the whole world hated you? What would you do with your life? And accept that imagined reality. Then, ask yourself: What if the whole world loved you? What would you…
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Holding Branches
The trees here on the Camino are planted separately, side by side, but grow into their neighbor’s branches. Their branches wrap around each other like they are holding hands. This reminds us that we have…
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Multiply by Zero
We are all connected. We are one energy. The earth is like the ocean without water. Animals are like humans without costumes. Everyone has an astounding and compounding impact on every detail in this universe.…
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Laughter
The times when I think people are impeding my time alone, to “think,” are actually times when I need to listen and take advice from others. You have the rest of your life to be…
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Eyelashes & Shooting Stars
We’ve stopped wishing. We’ve stopped grabbing eyelashes that fall on our cheeks, blowing out puffy flowers into the wind, watching for shooting stars, or checking the time for 11:11. Why not wish? If worrying is…
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Attraction
Why are we often attracted to people who don’t show attraction back to us? Who don’t give us everything we desire and need from a relationship? Is that human nature? Or is that because our…
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Let Yourself Go
How are people expected to know what they want in life? Why is it bad if someone doesn’t know what their next move is? Why is it a failure when someone has “let herself go?”…
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Three Skills
A wise friend recently told me his best piece of advice: the only three skills that anyone needs to master in order to live a joyous life is how to think, fast, and wait.
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Cutlery
Oh how cutlery has rid us of the pure joy of eating with the spoon of our palms, the forks of our fingers, and the knives of our nails.
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Cherry Jam
The joy of being alive is baking sweets and making jam from freshly picked cherries. The joy of being alive is singing around the campfire and listening to the strum of a guitar. The joy…
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Extraordinary
Don’t tell your daughter to be extraordinary. Refrain from saying that she can get any job she wants. That now is the time to chase her dreams. To be bold. Because that will teach her…
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The Chapel
She stands outside a chapel in Santiago. Graffiti lives on the walls behind the people selling goods in tents. Fire trucks are lined up; dogs are barking, horns are screaming, tires are screeching. The city…
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Twenty-Five
Throughout my travels, I’ve met many fellow twenty-five-year-olds who I’ve noticed are all going through the same brain exploding, euphoric, terrifying moment in life just as I am. At age twenty-five, our brains are fully…
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Deer
What if we just stopped thinking so much and just felt? Animals eat food and stay healthy without thinking, and some have brains the size of peanut shells. The ability to think and analyze and…
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Trees
Why does nature want to be alive and grow taller every day if it doesn’t do anything? Huh, capitalism? What’s your answer? I think maybe it’s because nature just wants to be alive. Trees don’t know what…
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Patagonia
She grabs the plants like they are holding hands. The wind blows on her entire body, pushing her slightly like a full-body hug. And she turns around to look at the mountains that will always…
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Forgiveness
Imagine everyone you love in your life telling you they forgive you. Imagine everyone who hurt you telling you they are sorry. Imagine everyone you feel shame around telling you they accept every flaw. Imagine…
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Rainbows
She is so busy looking for the best seat to watch the sunset, constantly moving around to find a better view than the last, that she will never see the rainbow that has formed right…
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Presence
The heat of the sun beams down on her back. Mountains surround her. The air is cold and crisp. The days have been cloudy and rainy up until this moment. She is so afraid that…
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Angels
Angels come into your life and light you up and give you support if you let them. I’ve been falling in love with so many people here. They seem like little angels. And I almost…
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Suffering
She feels she has to suffer to deserve joy. So she derives herself from joy, suffering each day, only to gorge herself with pleasure. The man taught her that in order for her to “earn”…
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Mountains
Mountains do not ask questions. Mountains do not ask the deer to live somewhere else and not on their skin. Mountains do not ask the clouds not to rain or ask the sun to shine…
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Vulnerability
She sits on a wood chair with a small cream cushion underneath. A lively small party commences in an old puesto in Argentina. The room is dark, only lit by a few candles in the…
Ali Walks Around 