By Ethan Maurice | July 1, 2025
There are times in life where things are so beautiful and electrically good you can’t even believe they’re happening.
Like, the time ten days into a road trip with a bunch of French people in New Zealand where you asked them to do all the planning in French and just let you ride on their coattails in a continual state of surprise and you stop in a field in the middle of nowhere are like “why we would even pull over here?” and five minutes later you’re climbing down into the mouth of a cave and miles of unforeseen spelunking adventure.
Or, on a cross-country bicycle ride, after days of being plagued by headwinds and cross-winds in Kansas, you set out before dawn to get in a few miles before the sun kicks up the wind and as the sun rises your speed slowly starts to increase and it suddenly dawns on you there’s a tailwind today and you sail across the remainder of Kansas — sometimes pushing over 30mph on flat ground — laughing and smiling and thanking the wind the whole day through covering 131 miles crossing into Colorado.
Times so satisfying that, at their peak, seem to justify all the doldrums, pain, and suffering in life. Times where the ground drops away and you can’t help but soar. Times where all, even out of place, is in place. Times where you’re like, “Ohhhhh, no wayyyyy…” And way… way indeed.
My friends Matthew and Nicolette, brilliant humans, DJs, and the creators and curators of Between2Clouds, are better at manifesting such moments than any humans I have ever met. Matthew appeared at the first WONDER WANDER, and through music, has somehow woven such a moment into every WONDER WANDER since. A few years ago, I flew out to North Carolina for a Between2Clouds New Year’s Eve Weekend and finally met Nicolette, riding shotgun with her throughout the weekend in awe as they so casually threw the best party I had ever been to, transforming a historic mansion into a three hundred person dance house, the library in which I was afraid to knock over something expensive upon arrival, the thumping, sweaty, pulsing heart of the party with all these wild characters who loved, lived, and danced music.
All this to say, when Matthew and Nicolette ask if you want to film some DJ sets in the desert, you go film some DJ sets in the desert, because you are very likely to experience something close to magic:
Yet, unexpectedly, these sets with moments in which the ground just drops away or the Wonder Valley sunset pierces the drop of some crazy Dune-esc house song, were not the highlight of the trip.
Rather, the gold was in the group adventure. In cruising my Prius around with the windows down to great tunes with wonderful people scouring the desert for spots for sets. In getting my Prius stuck in a sandy wash, everyone pushing me out, and accelerating up 100 yards ahead into a “military training ground, beware of unexploded ordinances” sign and marveling as Nicolette lost her totally unflappable cool. In walking down a desert road at sunset after a successful wrap of the weekend’s creative endeavors and feeling in that moment like the merry band of creatives “the man” never saw coming.
Childhood through college, I often didn’t quite feel I belonged. It wasn’t until I started pursuing my interests — traveling, writing, and attuning that compass innermost within — that I, in turn, discovered my people, and how effortlessly belonging is for me with people tuned to theirs.
Shine on you crazy diamonds.
*and let me know if you need any help filming your next project.
