…My Story is Still Being Written…

My story is still being written and I am still very much learning how to live it and how to tell it to both myself and to the world. As my life continues to unfold and write itself, this website will play a leading role in how I share the story of my life and the world(s) that surround me. Each of the sections on my website offer a different perspective and a unique way to tell different parts of the world around me and my story in it.

…Where to begin…?

A Few Distinctive Footprints

In many ways our lives are defined by the stories that we tell ourselves. If I were to make my story into a movie, with the exception of an opening scene montage that would condense a few choice scenes and moments in my life, the movie would start in January 2011. That’s when I left San Francisco, most of what I knew, and almost everything I owned behind to set off on what turned out to be a life-changing journey. A trip that was supposed to be 5 months has now passed its 10th year.

All the experiences that I’ve had have played a role in my life and make up an integral part of shaping who I am, and who I am constantly becoming. But the experience of leaving everything I knew behind and going off into a bigger world alone, awoke me, and shifted something that fundamentally changed my whole way of being.

The opening chapter of my life-changing journey took place in India. My time in India set the stage for the next phase of my life and for the template of this website. The three main components of it were: traveling around and seeing different ways of life, being involved in service work, and spirituality.

When I got to India, I immediately felt at home at The Hope Project, an NGO that I volunteered at in a Muslim area of Delhi. My experience at the Hope Project showed me a different perspective of life and the importance of being connected to something bigger than yourself.

A few months after my time at The Hope Project my spiritual path emerged when I went to a Buddhist meditation course in Dharamshala, an experience that opened up a new world for me and changed how I looked at life. Ever since then, service and spirituality have shaped how I travel, see the world, and interact with life.

Since I went to India, I have spent most of my life exploring the different landscapes of life. I have been to 50+ countries and am still without a permanent home. A search for meaning and the questions that come with seeking some understanding of the human journey through life in its different forms and stories are the underlying reason for my travels.

After around 7 years of traveling mainly in the role of observer, I started to change roles. In the last few years, I have started to more intimately share with other people some of what I have witnessed, learned and been a part of in my travels. I am keenly aware that few people in the world will get to see the world as I have. I strongly believe that being able to see the world as I have, comes with a built-in responsibility to give back to the experiences that I’ve had and to do something meaningful with what I have learned. I know that the undertaking of this work will be a life long journey that will take on many different forms. This website will be one of the interactive tools that I will use to understand and give back to my experiences. 

In the last few years, my story has expanded to organizing and co-leading pilgrimages, assisting on other pilgrimages, and teaching spiritual themed programs. When I’m not doing that writing and taking photos are how I share and document the life scenes and stories that surround me.

I am immensely proud to be a former board member of the now closed Children For Change Cambodia (CCC) and to currently be Vice President on the advisory board of M-LISADA Organization in Uganda. In addition to fundraising for M-LISADA Organization, I also generate support for different small projects in countries that I come across in my travels. This includes finding the funding for most of the operating costs of Sathya Uddhyan children’s school and shelter in Nepal.

 Heartbeats & Footprints —> The Journey We Make As We Travel Through Life

Arabic Calligraphy made in Morocco Oct 2019