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Shebana Coelho | Faraway is Close

Tree-longing, stone-singing, storydark beginnings - from Peru

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

November 14, 2025

Dear Friends,

Well, a month into being in Peru and this nomad has gone and committed… to a new writing community/blog: Creatively Engage with Ancestral Nature.​

What kind of ancestor am I after anyway? Whose? It has something to do with a deep longing to be tree and sing stone, to invoke the cave of shadows, the storydark…[Yup, I don’t know what that means either. But I feel it in my teeth.]

And how I know I've committed is that I cannot seem to stop writing:

  • about following a sheaf of oat grass to guinea pig royalty
  • about dancing to ancient Inca instruments with Hebe
  • about the nuances of being mistaken for a Peruvian guide when I was with white friends
  • about the way my heart goes ta-daap when I see the Wayri Chunchu dances from the Peruvian Amazon. And more. ​

Welcome to true, poetic, besotted encounters with place, journey, and creativity—an invitation to clamor, swoon, dissent, wander, wonder, etcetera etcetera.

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Unlike the occasional coming and goings of my Faraway is Close newsletter, this one has a regular (gasp!) schedule and the shape of a community of subscribers - who delight in being Story Travelers for $5/month. Read more idhar right here.​

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There’s also an invitation to Contribute writing. This month features a beautiful piece by my friend Ann Hunkins who is a poet and wildlife tracker.

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Go ahead, explore, forage, find, taste, chew, respond, ponder…

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Why this, why now?

Because - and maybe you can relate - I feel something is calling us back to land, story and each other in a visceral way - and that something is both the antidote for what is breaking and the force behind what is hopeful.

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Coming up: Afro-Peruvian dance lessons! Dawn Chorus thrushes…

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​Come along, Aagé Chalo, if it speaks, and of course, please spread the word!

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yours in adventure

Shebana

P.S: here's a little summary of how to stay connected ​

​https://www.shebanacoelho.com/connect​

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in the end

"A white snake coils past. A large toad, bracing on haunches, leaps. Where is such profusion of beauty allowed? How is it missed? "

from What I would write, by Ann Hunkins​

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PO Box 418, Ramah, NM 87321
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Shebana Coelho | Faraway is Close

on the move, rooted in landscape, story, community

News of workshops, performances, travelogues, sudden ah-has or ah-nos

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