Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. CONFUCIUS 

Wading through the "underworld" in Actun Tunichil Muknal... 

Running my fingers over the impressions in the walls of the Alhambra in Granada...

Savoring homemade brazo de reina and fresh pan in a Mayan woman’s dining room in Campeche... 

Sitting on a levee behind Café du Monde watching the sunrise over the Mississippi and returning three months later to a city forever changed...

It is this sense of displacement and awe that every traveler can identify with. Wading, searching, stumbling through the unfamiliar. But it is this sense of displacement—with the endeavor to get out from behind the glass, enrich oneself and connect with others—that can also heal, awaken, transform and inspire.

My travels have led me to experiences that have opened my heart, tested my resilience, as well as challenged and enriched my perception of the world. I write both to record my own journeys and to share my experiences so I may draw other travelers to the people and places that have informed and deepened my sense of wonder. I write to show that the world is not closed to us, but open.  

PHOTO: Melissa and her sister (right) rest in the shade with residents of ejido 20 de Noviembre (20th of November) in Campeche, Mexico.