seventh failure!
In mid-December, I made another serious attempt at a long darkness retreat. I thought I would try something different and keep it under wraps till it was over.
Across the lake, outside more populous San Pedro La Laguna, I rented what I thought was an appropriate house and bought supplies to darken it. The whole nine yards. Then the place turned out to be too noisy, cold, moldy, etc.
I spent all my money and a lot of energy. One of the first things I did afterward was write a long list of criteria any new space must meet before I spend a dime or minute on it. Then I returned to San Marcos to work and collect myself.
My new idea was that I will simply spend longer finding and preparing a place so that when it is finally time to begin, all I have to do is walk in, shut the door and turn of the light and everything will just work.
In the meantime, I would find a decent place to live (done! great housesitting job), decent work (done!), spend more time with the people here (doing it), and see to my immigration status in Guatemala, which I consider my home now.
Now cool developments have emerged since then. See my new post, serious darkness.