docs: def _load_config(self, path):
          """
          Load configuration from JSON
  
          :param path: path to the JSON config file
          :type path: str
          :return: config dictionary
          :rtype: dict
          """
          p = os.path.abspath(os.path.expanduser(path))
          logger.debug('Loading configuration from: %s', p)
          return read_json_file(p)