(Editor’s note: Special thanks to Diego Heredia for crafting this beautiful illustration. Additional artwork from Diego can be viewed here.)

It’s a cold night and lightning illuminates the sky every once in a while
It’s pouring down here in Guatemala
You can hear every raindrop hit the aluminum sheets we use as roofs
Although you may think it too noisy to sleep
It brings a sense of peace and relaxation into your being
Each rain
drop
as it hits its target
takes you deeper and deeper into a nirvanic state
For a moment
all of your worries
all of your pains
are simply forgotten
You no longer care about yesterday
or what may come tomorrow
All you know is that you are alive today

It’s cold outside
All I’m wearing are some shorts and a shirt, but I don’t mind
The wind rushes past me as if it were in a hurry to get to somewhere important
Yet I still don’t feel cold.
I look up at the night sky and I see
I see hundreds
Thousands
millions of stars scattered across the heavens
But I see more than stars as well
I see faces
I see the faces of my family members
the faces of my friends
the faces of those who have passed on
all looking down at me
I see them there
always with me
always willing to guide me home
As they have done for captains of old
returning them home from a long voyage in the ocean
For with-out them
we wouldn’t have a shoulder to cry on
a friend to trust a secret to
someone to make us laugh
someone to create memories with
someone to love
Some stars are brighter than others
but no matter how dim that light gets, it’s always there
There is always someone who worries about how you are doing
there is always someone who thinks about you
there is always someone who wonders if you need anything
there is always someone who simply wonders what you are doing at the moment
You are never alone
And if someday you feel like you are
look up at the night sky and you’ll see them
And you won’t feel cold.