Passage

Travel is a journey — a passage from one state into another. In this winter’s issue, we have a collection of stories that exemplify the power of passage.

In Trick of the Light, our written feature and Chasing Demons story, we follow the passage of prostitutes — women and trans men who transform from blank-faced figures in writer Annelise Jolley’s mind into the real-life characters she meets on the streets of Pattaya, Thailand.

For our photo feature, Dr. Gilad Fiskus presents a remarkable and colorful Portrait of Buddhism in Myanmar. He documents the country’s young men as they are introduced to monkhood — a rite of passage where only a select few will commit to a life of ritual, humility, and Sacred Moments.

For Ashley Seashore, it was a pack of ferocious Italian nuns and stubborn police who guarded her passage to safety — and it’s her Quest to avoid the dangers of the night that brings us both goosebumps and laughs in Nuns on a Train.

Meanwhile, in a forested archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, adventure journalist Jayme Moye finds herself contemplating the passage from life into death. In this beautiful tale of Human and Nature, it is a bird of prey revered by the island’s indigenous people who teaches Moye What the Forest Knows about mortality and transition.

And for our Time Travel piece, Picking Time, Elaine J. Masters takes us to Laramie, Wyoming, where lost and discarded items preserve the stories of past generations. The passage of these objects from the forgotten to the future lies in the hands of “pickers,” the self-sufficient and ingenious people who revive what might have been lost forever.

Wherever you find yourself, we wish you safe passage.

As always, we extend our deepest gratitude to our readers, who share our dream of powerful storytelling, and to our contributors, who send us stories worth sharing.

Yours in wanderlust,
Sabine Bergmann and Sivani Babu, Hidden Compass Co-Founders
Liz Shemaria, Hidden Compass Editor-at-Large