Songs Of My Travels

Songs of My Travels follows a life shaped by music, movement, and the quiet lessons of place. Born and raised in Nebraska, the author discovers that he truly grew up elsewhere — during three formative years in Africa, Spain, and France, where the sounds and spirit of those cultures settled into him long before he understood their meaning.What begins as a collection of representative songs from Africa, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, and Persia gradually becomes the story of a young man finding his way across continents. The music opens doors into memory, and memory opens into reflection. A chapter on Persia tells of the author's later discovery of Sufism — a tradition he had unknowingly lived among in his youth in North Africa. From there, the journey turns inward, exploring the gentle resonances between Sufism, Buddhism, and Syriac Christianity.The tone remains warm and unhurried throughout. Even when the book ends with a sly, affectionate wink toward the orthodox Christianity he once assumed was unshakeable, it does so without bitterness. Part musical anthology, part personal memoir, Songs of My Travels is a simple, honest meditation on how the world teaches us long before we realize we're learning.