A career in government had never entered my mind. As a young intern working for Eric Sevareid, I thrived on being on top of the news and I loved the people at CBS. While "Sixty Minutes" didn't exist yet, there was a baby - faced kid in the newsroom who later became its legendary producer, Don Hewitt. At the time, the State Department was recruiting people to work at their embassies. When they presented me with the possibility of working abroad, studying foreign languages, I said yes. The choice I made led to roads less traveled. Like the protagonist in my novel, The Sword & the Chrysanthemum, Journey of the Heart, I faced many challenges in my own personal journey. As a Foreign Service officer, I traveled from one end of the world to the other, Europe, Asia, Africa. Vietnam was a never ending nightmare. But something extraordinary happened while trekking in the mountains of Nepal. Though I didn't know it then, it signaled a life change. On a cold barren footpath, I was startled by a brown man with a beard and scraggly hair to his waist. Barefoot and naked except for a loincloth, he glowed with what I can only describe as a light of transmutable ecstasy. Nodding as though he knew me, he laughed a toothless laugh and chattered an unintelligible language. His compassion, his euphoria entered me like a fireball. Though I didn't understand a word he said, I could have remained in that sweet bliss forever; it was a foreshadowing of a path I'd never imagined taking. When he passed me, fading into the Himalayan mist, he took the light and the bliss with him. I wanted whatever it was he had. Always a seeker, I didn't know what I was searching for until it found me. But to everything there is a season. In the years that followed, travel in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, enriched and broadened my perception of the world. But it was never a world of peace. Only poverty, greed and wars. I discovered that peace comes from within; if you don't go there you will never find it. I had to look within myself to find what that little man on the mountain had in such abundance. When finally I learned to experience that blissful state for brief periods, I knew eventually I would write about it. In my novel, a young man embarks on a spiritual quest that changes his life and the life of the woman he loves. With facts woven into fiction I relied on my intimate connection to Japan while living there, considerable research, and personal experiences with spiritual masters. Every foreign assignment has left me with indelible snapshots. Surely, it would break my heart to see the Africa of today. Conversely, I can never forget what I witnessed in the Vietnam of yesterday. Those snapshots are frozen in time. After years of working abroad I returned to Washington, D.C. to write and produce educational documentaries about the developing countries, and the dedicated people who work there. Virtually invisible, they devote their lives to helping improve the lives of people who have nothing. They don't make headlines, but they do make a difference. Finally, there is life after the Foreign Service. Though I'm a freelance writer today, living in my blessed homeland, the Foreign Service will always be a part of how I define myself. Kind of like the song, "Hotel California" by the Eagles. "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."
	I'm available for speaking engagements about my book, The Sword & the Chrysanthemum, Journey of the Heart. As a former U.S. State Department and Agency for International Development officer, I also enjoy speaking about working abroad and how the Foreign Service, through our embassies and consulates, works for you if you're an American citizen traveling overseas.