Happy Sunday!

This has been a meaningful stretch of days for many of us. Western Easter came first, then Passover, and now Orthodox Easter is being celebrated today. Each tradition carries its own way of marking what matters. How fitting that these observances arrive within the first 22 days of Spring, a time for new beginnings.

Our Jewish friends remember the Exodus, the journey from bondage into liberation, and the enduring call to justice, compassion, and the dignity of every life. Our Christian friends celebrate the Resurrection, the triumph of life over death, and the hope that light rises even from the darkest places. In this shared moment, the richness of both journeys is honored — the freedom remembered at Passover and the renewal celebrated at Easter. Together, they form a lens through which we see both liberation and beginning anew.

Even if you do not personally observe these traditions, we can all carry forward their invitation: the promise of hope, the gift of freedom, and the chance to live with greater intention and calm. These themes surface again and again when conversations turn toward renewal, forgiveness, release, and the kind of life you want to lean toward as Spring opens up.

All of this has had me thinking about Peace in a different way than before. What all these traditions invite is a way of being inside yourself. Not Peace as calm, or quiet, or stillness. Peace as orientation, as the direction you face inside yourself. The inner alignment directing how you move through the world.

Travel brings this into focus. You can be in a beautiful place and feel pulled in several directions at once. Or you can also be in the very same place and feel clear about what you are moving toward. The landscape does not change. Your orientation does.

There is a particular kind of Peace that comes from knowing what you are aligned with. It shows up in the choices you make, the pace you keep, and the way you respond when something unexpected happens. It defines how you carry yourself through any given day.

So, the question that has been sitting with me, and that I offer to you:

What direction is your inner life facing as you move into the months ahead? Not what you hope to accomplish or fix. Simply: What are you oriented toward?

Peace, in this sense, is the alignment between your inner life and the outer life you are choosing. It is coherence. Integrity. The feeling that your actions, your values, and your deeper longings are all facing the same direction.

Travel becomes a mirror for this kind of Peace. When familiar routines fall away, it becomes easier to notice how you are moving through the world. Whether your choices feel aligned or automatic. Whether your pace is intentional or driven by habit.

Away from the structures of daily life, you can see more clearly what is guiding you. This awareness reveals whether you are living from your center or simply responding to momentum. It shows whether the way you are carrying yourself still feels true. This is the Peace I am interested in now — the Peace that comes from orientation, from coherence, from knowing what you are facing as you step into the next part of your life.

Photo Op + Action Opportunity: Peace, Noticed

Photo Op​
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Find one moment in the next week when you notice that you have been moving on autopilot. Pause for ten seconds. Let your attention settle. Without staging anything, take one photo of the first detail you genuinely notice.

Action Opportunity

Write a short caption as if you are telling a close friend what just happened. Name what you were doing, what changed when you paused, and what you want your attention to focus on for the rest of the day.

End with one simple sentence that begins with: “Today, I choose to face…”

You now have a lived record of orientation and coherence without force.

Journeys Designed for Peace, Lived

If you feel ready to take this kind of noticing out of your everyday life and into a place where it can deepen, this is where I would begin.

For those drawn to a sacred space →
Take a Shot at Happiness Nepal

Dec 8–14, 2026 | 7 Days | All-Inclusive

In Nepal, your days slow enough for you to notice how you are actually moving through them. You spend time in places that have held people’s attention for centuries. You walk. You sit. You observe what happens when nothing is asking you to rush, perform, or explain yourself.

I guide practices along the way that bring your inner direction into focus.

People come when they are ready to face the next part of their life with clarity about direction.

Limited to 16 guests

See How This Journey Unfolds →

Other Ways People Choose to
Travel Through the World

Different journeys support different ways of moving forward.

Zarafa Camp, Botswana

For travelers who love safaris and also love doing very little between them.

This is one of my favorite places. Zarafa is the kind of camp where nothing is trying to impress you. You sit on the deck, you look out at the lagoon, and wildlife moves through on its own schedule. Elephants wander by. Hippos surface. You notice how easy it is to stay right where you are.

The camp is small, set under ebony trees in the Selinda Reserve, and that scale matters. You are never far from what is happening around you. I spend a lot of time just sitting there, watching, letting the day unfold without deciding what comes next.

If you love safaris and also value time to think, notice, and be still without trying to be still, this place holds that beautifully. It is one I return to often, and it stays with me long after I leave.

Great Plains Zarafa Camp →

PONANT EXPLORATIONS
Voyages in Alliance with Smithsonian Journeys

For travelers who like learning history and perspective.

These voyages move at a pace that allows history to stay present. You travel through places with long histories, and the understanding comes from being there—through conversation, shared observation, and time spent noticing what is around you. Smithsonian Journeys Experts travel with you and bring knowledge that adds depth to what you are seeing

Learn More About PONANT Voyages →

A Note on My Guided Journeys

For the journeys I personally host, the experience continues after you return home. Your trip includes my happiness online course Take a Shot at Happiness: A Happiness Explorer’s Journey (a $997 value) as a way to stay in conversation with what you noticed and how it shows up once you are back in the flow of daily life.

Why Travel with Me

I pay attention to how you spend your time while you are away. What you notice when there is room to see clearly. How you move when your days are no longer overfilled. This is travel for people who care about how they live.

Your fellow Sojourner,

Maria Baltazzi, PhD, MFA​
​Happiness Explorer | Wellbeing Teacher
Founder of Sojourn Explorers​
Award-Winning Author, Take a Shot at Happiness
​ Emmy-Winning Producer

P.S.: I write this newsletter for people who love travel and who care about how it changes them. These notes are part of an ongoing conversation about how we travel and how we return. Each issue includes a simple practice inspired by my book Take a Shot at Happiness—photography and a few lines of writing—to help you notice what is worth keeping.

If someone came to mind as you read this, feel free to forward it.

If you are reading this because a friend shared it—welcome. I send this newsletter twice a month.

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