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Hello family.

We’ve been through a lot this year. Let’s just take some time to acknowledge all that we have endured together through many troubling, doubtful events and times. We have learned that anything is possible, no matter how rich or poor, strong or weak, powerful or marginalized, there has been a fight to be won and to be lost…

We have learned that we still have a lot of work to be done, we have a lot to raise our voices and our fists to continue fighting for. We have a lot to stand in solidarity for. A lot of people, a lot of lives lost and damaged. A lot of cultures, ideologies, and traditions stolen. We owe it to the indigenous.

We owe it to ourselves and those who have respected the land we have come to live on. How we treat our home is symbolic of the person we are within. And as a species, a civilization, and as a community, we should be fighting to have a more prideful representation of the home that we inhabit: Earth. So fight your fight, do what you can, live sustainably and do what is right for the world and its living creatures. We owe it all to each other.

Collective Pain Calls For Collective Healing.

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I feel like it’s not only overdue, but my right and my calling to make a post here every day. I often feel that maybe my thoughts aren’t cohesive enough to write them here, but I forget how powerful and beautiful the act of writing can be. And really, it goes hand in hand with what I have to share visually. Together, they are a catalyst of the experiences I’ve had that I can share with others. I’ve found that’s what I really want to do. Create; Educate; Commemorate.

I believe that in my life I’ve attracted specific experiences — specific souls and relationships that have either grown to become something or drifted off for the better; specific places I’ve been and photographs I’ve made, hands I’ve shaken, DM’s I’ve sent, turns I’ve made. I believe that nearly everything happens for a reason, even if we don’t quite understand it yet, or ever. Many things in life aren’t meant for us to understand, but moments in time meant for us to experience… And perhaps, for some like me, we have an underlying purpose to capture them and preserve them.

The work I do is both for myself and for the preservation of an art form which captures extremely rare, once-in-a-lifetime snapshots of our collective consciousness experience. That is a beautiful thing and I’ll simply always do it, always learning and growing along the way, as I’ve been. It’s just a beautiful thing to embrace, like all of our collective experiences together…

…And when we find there’s something that hurts our souls, that disturbs our peace, that isn’t beautiful in respect to preservation of life – we act… We protest, we debate, we fight, we rebel.

Even those moments – especially those moments – need preservation. They and the individuals who have experienced pain and injustice need their story told so that the collective conscious understands morality and learns to love each other. We have been shown time and time again the importance of documenting and telling the stories over time, and fighting for the change we wish to see.

Spread love, stay safe, stay tuned. A post every day coming from yours truly.

In Solidarity
~Matthew

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Some conversations simply strike a different chord inside. They elevate your awareness by occurring just at the right time and connecting you deeper to what’s already been weighing on your mind.

It takes a particular person and energy to bring both of you to this place. The same person and energy won’t always bring you to the same place, but life never ceases to take you where you need to go. Some things really take time, then they become unforgettable.

You can’t force your self-understanding. You can only encourage it, pray for it, manifest it. It will come, but it can’t be forced or rushed. Yours will never be true for others, either. You each walk away from the same conversation with different versions of clarity and understanding. It’s one cog in a big ass wheel of life.

You won’t always notice truth when it comes. And you won’t always accept it once you notice it. But your truth will reveal itself, and furthermore, prove over time why it couldn’t be any other way.