That last day, after returning to Munich from our morning in Dachau, the name of the game was extraction. If at all possible, we’d soak up every last drop of what was left there for us to discover – see – taste – do, given the time parameters within which we were operating. Which wasn’t much.

With our luggage stowed at the main station in anticipation of our night train departure, Cliff and I gallivanted about the city with such ease, such leisure, such wonder. God bless Munich and their immaculate public transportation system and navigable streets. It was a string of hours I felt complete and total bliss. In the company of my favorite co-adventurer, walking cobblestoned streets under beautiful archways, it was that period of the journey where the end is so near and yet every second ticks by slower and more wonderful than it seems even possible.

Thank God for that. And thank God for all of it. What a blessing… an opportunity… to have gone. And to know how likely it is we will return.

And finally, to have looked back with such joy and awe over these last few weeks.

As a photographer, I take a great deal of inner-pride in my work – my art… balanced with my understanding that anything I have was given to me. This experience, both in service and in leisure, was a unique opportunity for me to combine so much of what I love and am passionate about in life with this crazy thing that God has been building me over the course of the last couple of years. Sharing all of that here to whomever would see, is quite possibly one of the most terrifying and yet truly gratifying opportunities I’ve ever been given.

Thank you for journeying with me, in a way. For seeing and for, at times, allowing yourselves to feel. I can’t tell you what your comments here, your remarks when I’ve run into you (or even, driven next to you, conversing out our open windows…), and your thoughtful notes tucked into other places around the internet have meant to me.