People often ask me why I live in Peru.

For years, I’d give an almost-answer: “I like learning Spanish, I love the people, my friends here, the food, the history, the culture.”

Those are all true, but they don’t add up to the full reason.

Only recently have I understood the real “why.”

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In my twenties and early thirties, I did cool things. I wrote two novels, I performed on aerial silks, I drove around the U.S.

Those were the reasons, I believed, that I was likable. Valuable, even.

But when I came to Peru, I stopped writing, I stopped doing silks.

What’s more, I lost another thing I thought made me valuable: good conversation.

In English, I often surprise people with my questions and attention to nuance.

But in Spanish, when I first arrived, I was still a toddler. I couldn’t ask insightful comments or call out a subtlety in someone else’s. Everything had to be explained to me, and I struggled mightily to express basic things.

Despite all that–despite losing the things I thought gave me value–people still seemed to want to spend time with me.

I still wanted to spend time with me.

And so I discovered something deeper, not dependent on external things. Something that couldn’t be taken away.

Here in Peru, I discovered real self-worth.

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It’s not healthy to love ourselves for our achievements.

We need to know that even if they all disappeared, we’d be every bit as lovable.

Moving to Peru showed that to me.

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A year or so after arriving in Peru, I began writing again. And I found I wrote differently: from my core, from my heart, from a place of loving myself deeper than I had before. No longer from a place of trying to impress, trying to posture, trying to prove something.

I write because it gives me a clear-eyed, ever-deepening view of the world and of myself.

I hope it does that for others, too.

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I don’t mean to downplay the sheer amazement I feel for this country. Criolla music, the Amazon, downtown Lima, walking everywhere, living by the ocean, great weather, living in a huge electrified city–I love it.

Yet when we really feel home somewhere, it’s rarely because of the external things.

It’s rooted in something deeper:

What we want.

What we need.

Who we are.

Working with a ghostwriter or book coach who looks for the “why” behind our choices can help bring your book to a deeper level, one that will resonate with your readers and deepen your understanding of yourself and your material.

Message me below to see how we might work together.