Almost Weightless: Essays on the Journey to Myself, Told Through Eclectic Life Experiences and Spirited Travel Adventures

Book Synopsis: A FUN, FREEWHEELING RIDE THROUGH ONE YOUNG MAN’S EARLY ADULTHOOD, COUPLED WITH RAW INTROSPECTION ABOUT HIS PATH TO SELF-LOVE.

In this collection of exuberant personal essays, musician Matt Reischling shares a series of eclectic, transformative life experiences he had in different cities and countries during his early adulthood, while navigating some stressful, self-created narratives about his sexuality. As he relates this inner and outer journey, he also dives into a variety of topics, such as synchronicity, depression, the paranormal, graffiti art culture, immigration, and Mesoamerican mythology, all to share insights about how he learned to live a more balanced emotional life.

The essays follow a loose, linear timeline, sometimes jumping a few years, but the thread of his internal journey runs through them all. In the first six, you’ll join him as he begins a year studying abroad in Italy as an adventurous twenty-year-old, lives on a boat while working at a soul food restaurant in Oakland, discovers a serendipitous link to a respected American film director via Echo Park, falls in love with Mexican American culture while living in a spirited house in East LA, struggles through a major depressive period that leads to an awkward scene in a Northern California restaurant, and darts around Havana, Cuba, soaking up its vibrant energy with a newfound appreciation for life.

In the last two essays, “A Pull to Mexico, a Path to Love” and “Chasing Quetzalcoatl,” he briefly finds love while continuing his journey to self-acceptance, which shifts into a more cosmic exploration of his connection to Mesoamerican history, places, and people. He travels to a handful of Mayan sites in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico, marvels at the advanced engineering of their pyramids, and occasionally senses heightened energy fields within these areas, experiencing the real force of synchronicity, a theme that runs through all these essays. He also gets laid a few times, so there’s some passion and romance in this thing too.

Come join Matt as he travels within himself and the wider world, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll find yourself …almost weightless.