Life doesn’t always get bigger. Sometimes it narrows, slows, and asks you to pay attention to the small details. This is one of those moments for me.

This website has gone through many redesigns over the years — which feels fitting, since my life has done the same. For most of its existence, elcanche.com was my public notebook from Guatemala: part news, part analysis, and always plenty of photos.

But life, as it does, has shifted. Family responsibilities have brought me back to New York, and my world feels… let’s say “more compact” these days. I’m not doing human rights work at the moment. Instead, I’m trying to land a minimum-wage job at one of the few remaining stores in our slowly disappearing mall — a quest that’s somehow both humbling and oddly difficult. (And that is a story for another day.)

So now the site’s taking a different path — part journal, part creative outlet, and yes, a little bit of a vanity project. Mostly, it’s here to remind me to keep noticing the world around me, reflecting, and writing… even if no one else is reading.

And if you do find something here that makes you smile — well, that’s just icing on the cake.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Arthur Ashe