The Blessing Way (1970)

Officially titled the Republic of Guatemala, this Central American country is bounded by Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Belize. The origin of the name Guatemala has two possible sources. The first possibility is that the word derived from an Aztec word Quauhtemallan (“land of trees”), and the second is that Guatemala derived from Guhatezmalha (“mountain of vomiting water”). Since there are 27 volcanoes within the country, which is, or was before the devastating encroachment of coffee plantations, also heavily forested, either name seems appropriate.

Guatemala was also the territorial seat of the Maya civilization, one of the three great civilizations (including the Aztecan and Incan empires) that dominated the Americas prior to European contact in the sixteenth century. Known for its impressive pyramid temples and extraordinary art and artifacts, its written language, and its advanced mathematical and astronomical achievements, descendants of the Maya civilization and culture still populate the Guatemalan highlands in one of the most concentrated indigenous populations currently extant in Central America.

The condition of being grainy or of having the consistency of coarse sand. Gritty.

A student in graduate school who receives reimbursement for working to support individual faculty research, departmental functions, or university offices. Typically, graduate assistants can work as instructors, researchers, and assistants to professors, among other tasks, often completing menial work such as facilitating course logistics, while also assisting in lecturing and grading class assignments. It is the belief that the on-the-job experience garnered by a graduate assistant will further her or his career in some fashion.

Numerous summer- and fall-blooming plants found in meadows and pastures and along roads, ditches, and other disturbed areas throughout North America. Goldenrod species are recognizable because of their golden inflorescence, or the hundreds of tiny yellow flowers that ascend their slender, upright stems. Often considered weeds, goldenrods are attractive to various pollinators such as bees, wasps, and butterflies.

The golden mean is another term for the golden ratio, a mathematical concept that presents itself in nature as a range of interlinking relationships. A Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defined the golden mean as falling exactly between excess and deficiency, between too much and too little. Even though the golden mean finds quantifiable expression in numerical relationships between observable objects and phenomena in nature, it also can be expressed as a moral, philosophical, and aesthetic ideal that evokes a sense of balance, harmony, and equilibrium.

A person who engages in warfare. In stratified armies, warrior can refer to a specific rank, or it can merely refer to one who fights with no predefined role.

Another word for chatty or talkative. Someone who is garrulous talks a lot, all the time, and not necessarily about anything "important." Because garrulous also suggests a lack of focus, as in the tendency of the speaker to wander from subject to subject, it can also connote agedness. In the English language, garrulous is often applied to individuals of an older generation, people who may not have a lot of company, people who have a lot of time on their hands, as well as people who may have reached a point in their lives where they don't really care what anyone thinks, and so they say whatever and as much as they want.

A seasonal camp, often located in the mountains, where sheep can graze. These camps can be occupied either during summer or year round.

Animals or insects whose food source is exclusively or partially the carcasses of dead animals, garbage, or other food sources that have been overlooked by, or are undesirable to, other creatures.

A sudden flood that occurs when a large amount of rain falls in a short amount of time, often characterized by fast-moving water and destruction. Flash floods are common in Southwestern arroyos, canyons, and other permanent and ephemeral water systems, especially during the summer monsoons, and can be very dangerous.