As a photographer and expedition guide, I travel around the world. But it’s more than just taking pictures and climbing mountains. I travel to remember. Starting each morning with a new sunrise reminds me that today is not yesterday. Fresh beginnings Taking a moment to realign, reawaken and remember my truth. That was then, and this is now, and I am alive with each breath.
Moonrise, lightening flash, gardenia’s scent, whales’ exhale - all sacred moments to bring me back to center, to reawaken. With conscious awareness of every moment, any event can be so sacred. Not dwelling on the past. Not attached to any moment I have imagined might come. With each new breath, I reawaken. And this is why I travel.
To remember that I am not the outward circumstances of my life - that illusion that seems to exist to pay the bills. I am, instead, this bird flying past. I am the tropical wind, the flash of fish scales in the morning light. I am the hungry gaze of the ragged child. I am the beat of the drum, the prayer of the monk. I am the deeply-diving whale. And this is why I travel.
To break free of the illusion that I am defined by my daily routines. To step away from incessant doing and witness the same simple truth that comes from within me again and again and again when I make time for simply being.
This truth that is forever here within me, waiting to be rediscovered. Waiting for me to reawaken. I am not my mind that forgets. I am that which is always behind the mind’s stories, the mind’s outward search for self. Travel breaks the patterns and routines. And through that break, my true essence freely arises once again.
