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2000s: Bird’s Eye View: A Tapestry of Maya Mythology, Motherhood, and Making Life Anew
Bird’s Eye View A Tapestry of Maya Mythology
What you need to know before your trail
When Jan Moves to Guatemala with her young daughter to run a medical clinic on the heels of her divorce, she knows the experience will be difficult and life-changing. But she doesn’t anticipate all the ways she will change.
To make sense of her professional, personal, and parenting turmoil in a country with plenty of its own turmoil, Jan finds herself adopting a Maya worldview that weaves together concepts of duality (there can be no light without dark, no joy without pain), harmony with nature, and the importance of connecting to the past to understand one’s present self.
Awash with elements of Maya mythology, history, and culture and innumerable revelations of the compassion, intelligence, and resilience of the Guatemalan people, Bird’s-Eye View is a coming-of-middle-age story that shows how viewing life through the prism of a different set of myths can help an individual understand the familiar tales they have unwittingly followed.
Travel Guide
Author insight into the locations:
The book is largely set in Guatemala with a few USA locations added.
Petén, Guatemala: Accepting a position as a community organizer for a non-governmental organization with ties to the Catholic church, she moves to a rural village within the sticky hot, low-lying jungle area of Guatemala. Thwarted by narco-traficantes, disease, and perpetual violence yet transformed by the love and dedication of the people she meets, Jan returns to North Carolina with zealotry to serve immigrants.
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala: As a single mother of ten year old Lucia, Jan accepts another position with a non-government organization in Guatemala. This time the organization has ties to the United Methodist Church and is located in the temperate and ostensibly peaceful highlands, though chaos is always nearby. Jan attempts to integrate Lucia and herself into the Maya villages, with hopes that she can “make a difference”, but the “difference made” is within herself.
Seattle, Washington: Jan relocates to cool, misty Seattle to be with Wade. They have their daughter, Lucia, and she continues her career in public health. They begin to plan a sojourn to Latin America as a family. Weeks before their departure, Wade cancels the trip and then cancels their marriage.
North Carolina: Jan has a traditional, conservative Southern Baptist upbringing in a small town. While teaching English to migrant farmworkers in the tobacco fields, she finds her calling to serve Hispanic immigrants which leads her to Petén, Guatemala for two years. When she returns to North Carolina, she meets her future husband Wade.
Bird’s Eye View is a memoir about a physical and spiritual journey. Each of the geographical locations reflects where Jan is in her personal growth. As a “bird” person, she is constantly migrating in the search for home.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Bird’s Eye View A Tapestry of Maya Mythology
Destination: Guatemala Author/guide: Jan Capps Departure Time: 2000s
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