Hey there,

I’m currently at Begnas Lake, in Nepal, winding down a six-month journey that started at the end of July of last year in Albania, which came on the heels of my three-month trip to Morocco. It’s been my longest and heaviest trip to date - which led to my first assignments as a travel photographer, which spanned four countries; intensely challenging and emotional circumstances around my entry and exit to Nepal, it broke my record for the longest amount of time spent in a single country (Nepal); and lastly, a life-changing experience which I speak more of below:

I started 2022 with an intense ten-day meditation retreat - no speaking, smartphone, reading, or writing (the latter two were the hardest for me to give up) and included ten hours of meditation each day. A lot of ideas and revelations came to me in those long, silent days which now feel like a strange dream, and I doubt I have remembered all of them, but one thing I wanted to do in particular was to separate my travel writing with my “blog” writing. I want to maintain a record of what I’m doing during my travels as it happens (or even when I’m not traveling), and not just wait until the trip is over and start to try and recollect everything and put it together in a literary form (because as time goes on, a lot of this doesn’t happen).

So I’m going to write a simple post to this column, at least once a month, to ensure a steady flow of material is coming, while I try and make sense of and piece together some of the most impactful experiences from the past trips, which will be released in the separate pages for each country/region that I have started.

I have an overwhelming amount of writing that I want to do about these trips, and so am planning to build/structure extra time into my schedule this year to allow me to write more than I ever have before.

I have less than a week before I fly home to Des Moines, and am very excited to see friends and family, but also to take the lessons I’ve learned and the lifestyle changes I have made with me back home, to continue on a path that will challenge me and lead me to fulfill my potential.

Below are a select few photos from the past six months.

—- For any burgeoning writers out there who may be reading this, I’m currently starting up a writing group with two close friends back home. If you’re interested in joining, feel free to email me. —-

Be well,

-Matt

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