Working on images I shot last month in Maui. I hiked Mt. Haleakalā, a large volcano (over 10,000 ft. in elevation) where many people go to scatter cremated ashes.

Having consumed tens of books over the past few months on all of the complicated and disheartening things that have happened since the 2011 tsunami, I knew that I had to do something to help. Where one would usually digest images of the disaster and become a bit more numb to the cause, I have intentionally avoided this imagery. I don’t want to cling to the shock value or maybe I have really avoided it because it makes me feel helpless. Volunteering is a wonderful way to shift out of that helpless feeling and there is so much work to be done still…

“You cannot be truthful if you are not courageous.
You cannot be loving if you are not courageous.
You cannot be trusting if you are not courageous.
You cannot enter into reality if you are not courageous.
Hence courage comes first… and everything else follows.”
-Osho