People sometimes ask me what it was like to live in the Amazon.

I wish I could transport them there, just for a second. Or upload a snippet of virtual reality into their brain so they could experience it too. Because, like most places, it’s impossible to explain.

You’d think that I, as a writer, would have more faith in words. But I don’t.

Words fail. Constantly.

Being somewhere is the only way to know what it’s like.

…But that doesn’t mean talking or writing about it is pointless.

🌱

What was it like, living in the Amazon?

Well…

In the city, I spent a lot of time on my kitchen floor. Not because it was much cooler there, but because the heat made me so lethargic I could barely function.

In the rainforest, it’s a different story. It’s still oven-hot but at least the air moves. The trees breathe, the river cools. And the heat falls away, because there, you’ll hear things like:

There are no stones in the jungle!

This fruit levels your hormones and eases your sadness.

This root will show you another dimension.

And yet.

Those things are just fragments, snipped from the fabric of their reality and now flattened onto a white screen.

They don’t carry the heavy weight of the air, the screeching motos of the city streets or the symphonic birdsong of the forest. They don’t convey how much effort it takes just to move through the day, or the strange fulfillment that comes from existing in a place that is both hostile and extraordinarily generous.

All of those things are lost.

And yet…

If I don’t write about them, even more are lost.

🌴

A lot of writers give up when they can’t express something just right.

I certainly have.

But when I do write imperfectly, even if it’s just a faint shadow of the real thing—when I come back to it months or years later, I’m always glad I did.

It always captures a bit more than I thought.

I’m Kimberly, writer, ghostwriter, & book coach. If you’re interested in writing about your life, however imperfectly, you’re in the right place. Check out the book- writing services I offer here, and/or click here to schedule a call.