There’s a quote often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” That pretty much sums up the past year for me.

After years of work behind the scenes, I’m excited to share a meaningful turning point in this project. What started as an effort to document stories from modern Buddhist practitioners has now become something much larger—and more defined.

The past six months have been unusually busy, with transitions and learning curves. While my main project made progress, I spent much of my time and energy on a quietly brewing new venture.

I guess it's a good thing that I've been pretty steadily busy in 2023, not having too much time to reflect and write about it. To be frank, it's a daunting task to reflect on all that has transpired in a year, given all the various 'projects' that I am committed to. As it relates to this project, I intentionally didn't interview as many people as in the years past, as the backlog of raw material was becoming unmanageable. Even though I have 'processed' many of the interviews, the real work of digesting the content and building a narrative around it hadn't really begun.

Although I experimented with this idea during a trip to upstate NY last year, I anticipate more interesting results this time around while exploring national parks. Weaving dharma into these epic hiking adventures feels appropriate  , and incorporating dharma into daily activities has gradually become a regular part of my mind training beyond meditation.