I'm a freelance writer and photographer who works a lot overseas. My work has appeared in a variety of magazines, newspapers, and anthologies, including Best Travel Writing 2008, the Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Star, and World Hum. I write a biweekly travel column for Gather.com called "Reflections on the Road" and am the author of 30 Reasons to Travel: Photographs and Reflections from Southeast Asia.

What drives me? I'm passionate about helping people understand one another, particularly in a post 9/11 world. I spend much of my life in front of a computer writing, which drains me, but I come alive again when I close my laptop and hit the road to capture the beauty and complexity -- and sometimes the horror -- of our world. And whether I'm writing or taking photographs, I try to keep in mind something I wrote to myself in 2004:

Traveling, when done well, is nothing less than learning to love -- loving things like adventure and change, yes, but even more learning to love people with names like Mustafa, Flora, Yangyang, Sikander, and Balram. It is learning to love places in all their complexities and contradictions, beauty and horror. It is learning to love our connectedness -- that no matter what the religion, war, language, or worldview, we are, when all is said and done, neighbors in a world we share.

I hope you enjoy the photos. All purchases will help offset the costs of my ongoing travels (and this is greatly appreciated!). Please contact me if you have any questions.

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