Two Places at Once

This morning I was in both the northern and southern hemispheres at the same time, strattling that line from which Equador gets its name. Last night I sat on the rooftop terrace outside my room in Quito and watched the sky turn from rosy pink to dark purple as church bells echoed off the surrounding mountains and the cobbled-stone streets and a woman in the house across the street drew lace curtains across her warmly-lit living room window. This afternoon I felt my sternum tingle with forgotten spirituality as I tip-toed through the gold lined belly of a colonial church. Right now, full of empanadas, rice, chicken, and blackberry tea, I feel warm, happy, a thousand miles away from and yet finally home.