Introduction to my Blog
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us – don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog.
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
(Emily Dickenson)



and I’m Dana
who are you?
are you wondering that too?
how lovely to be writing
how public like a frog
to put to words
this thing called life
and post it on a blog
(Dana Hill)

Every time I hear "blog" Emily Dickenson’s poem comes to mind. I memorized it as a child, when my love affair with words began. I love to read, to write. I love the challenge of enticing human experience into a communicable format. Whether this be done through words, dance, visual arts, music, I love the creative process.

I am also fascinated by stories. By how people meet the world. I imagine us inhaling, bringing into ourselves our surroundings to run through the delicate sieve of the mind, silvery criss-crosses woven since birth. Genetics, personality, life events, culture, values and teachings are the shiny material, texture and shape, making it whole and ever-changing. Whether or not we want to inhale, if we are alive our lungs keep breathing, life’s grains steadily sifting, flowing in and somehow through to the exhale.

This blog is about this process; it is about life as it moves through my mind where I am now. I live in Guasmo Sur, a poor neighborhood at the southern end of Guayaquil, a city of 2 million on the west coast of Ecuador. It is about the people around me, about their lives and stories as I see them. It is about Ecuador and the world, the interconnectedness of people and the common humanity we share.

And who am I, Dana? I am a person. A daughter, sister, cousin, a good friend, a lover of children. I am a question-asker, a laugher and a crier. I am passionate about social justice, equality and people knowing love in their lives. I am a social and reflective creature, and draw energy and joy from both inward and outward movement. My life is full of light and beauty; I am grateful for all I have been given and for all the beautiful people in my life.

Reading my friend Bryan’s blog, I guess I should explain how I wound up in Ecuador, which feels like a long story…After graduating from FSU in 1999, I moved to the Dominican Republic for a year where my mind struggled to grasp both the poverty and generosity of the people. I worked with children and youth, and they taught me Spanish, meringue, and so much about life. It was against the backdrop of the rural poverty in which we lived that Fathers John and Andy introduced me to Catholic social justice teachings and the links between my the lifestyle in my country and the poverty by which I was then surrounded.

From there I moved to DC where I experienced another aspect of global poverty working with immigrants. I left DC to wander Europe and wound up spending most of the next year focused inward, living in Taizé, an extraordinary monastery dedicated to peace and reconciliation in France. Then back to DC to study International Development at American University. After 2 intense years there, I again turned in, spending a month in contemplative silence last summer being led in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Shortly thereafter, I moved to Ecuador to work for Mi Cometa, a local community development organization in Guasmo Sur, where I am currently.

In the midst of my experience here, I feel a need to write. I write to share the stories of the people who enrich my life here. I write to share my own experience, lighten its weight and spread its joy. And I write because I love the thoughtful and creative process it is.
- posted by little monk @ 4:03 PM