About

This site is a collection of reflective essays about place, memory, and presence.

The writing here is personal, but not confessional. It is observational rather than explanatory, and often unfinished by design. The goal is not to teach or persuade, but to notice what becomes visible when one stops trying to capture or optimize experience.

Some of these reflections intersect with work the author does elsewhere. This space exists for the thinking itself, before it becomes anything else.

About the Author

Michael writes reflective essays about place, memory, and participation. Some of these reflections intersect with work he does elsewhere. This space exists for the thinking itself, before it becomes anything else.

He has spent two decades exploring the intersection of travel and meaning, first as founder of Culture Discovery Vacations, now as a writer reflecting on what those journeys revealed.

The essays here emerge from years of wandering and wondering—sitting in village squares, walking unfamiliar streets, sharing meals with strangers who became friends. They are attempts to understand what travel teaches when we stop performing it and start inhabiting it.

Why This Site Exists

Travel writing often falls into two categories: the practical (where to go, what to do) or the aspirational (beautiful images of beautiful places). Neither captures what happens when place changes a person.

This site exists to explore that third space—the inner landscape that shifts when we pay attention to the outer one. Not recommendations or inspiration, but reflection. Not answers, but questions that stay with us.

Each essay is an attempt to hold something still long enough to see it clearly. They are written slowly, published infrequently, and meant to be read the same way.