“As long as you have the ability to walk and to breathe, there is a way to move forward.” Even before the Volunteer Coordinator translated the sentence into English, I could feel the resolve behind it. Ernestina’s words echoed through my mind as the scent of bubbling oil from a woman cooking guinea pig hung in the air. Tiny Urubamba storefronts either overflowing with blue and red mop buckets, brooms, and sacks of laundry...

Darkness hovers around me as I wrestle with my alarm and force my feet to feel the chill of the bare cement floor to make sure I don’t snooze my way back into oblivion. With numb fingers, I slip into yesterday’s dusty clothes and lace up my sneakers. The sky is just beginning to lighten as I pull the gate and hear the click of the latch behind me. Seeking heat anywhere I can get it, I slide my gloved hands into my pockets and...

With one hand gripping my backpack and the other clenched around the holy sh!t handle, I held my breath as the van almost tilted off its wheels. With each hairpin turn the driver, of the shared ride service from Cusco, dropped us further into the depths of the Sacred Valley. A vision of us tumbling end over end through the dust and yellow grass flashed through my mind, but at that precise moment, my iPod shuffled to a Tim McGraw song I...

Usually it takes 3 days, but this time it only took 3 seconds… After almost 8 months of homelessness and 4.5 months in foreign countries, I have to admit to myself, and to you, that the first 3 days in a new place sometimes have me riding on the “poor me” train. Although I have all of the anticipatory excitement pre-arrival, sadness and nostalgia often stand waiting for me in the arrivals area as I look around at all of the...

‘Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” Napoleon Hill How’s your dreaming mojo doing these days? Did it get buried under an onslaught of responsibilities, hidden beneath rising credit card debt, or forgotten amidst kids soccer games and getting the garbage to the curb each week? My dreaming mojo disappeared around 1993. With my feathered and...