And then I realize —
that even here,
where simplicity still lives,
one thing
has made its way in.

Stories in Light – Brazil.
Episode 8: Ramiro.

“Enough is a blessing,”
my grandfather used to say.

At Ramiro’s (67), I understand why.

Sitting at his kitchen table,
it feels as if time here
stood still a hundred years ago.

No chair to sink into.
No lamp to soften the room.
No window to let in the light.

I lift my feet
for the macaws
that eat from the pan beside me.

Like his home,
Ramiro is a man of little.

Words, mostly.

As a child,
the caves of Terra Ronca were his playground.

With a torch
and a machete,
he was the first guide in the region
to explore the caves
where daylight
has not reached for millions of years.

He was baptized in their waters,
married there,
and raised four children.

People from all over the world
he leads underground.

The cave man.
Guardian of Terra Ronca.

“Do you ever get tired of guiding?” I ask.

He shakes his head.

“Every day,” he says,
“it feels as if I see the beauty
of the caves
for the very first time.”

Ramiro.

A man
who needs little.

Or so it seems.

Back at his home,
he sets a plastic chair outside.

His wife beside him.

The glow of their phone
lights up their hands.

And then I realize —

that even here,
where simplicity still lives,
one thing
has made its way in.

The internet.