Tag Archives: nontraditional lifestyle
Interview: Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel
I met Barbara online. When I emailed her an interview request, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. She wrote, “Perpetual or even long-term travel changes us irrevocably and many of us cannot return to [the same] lives…after our experiences around the world.” A match! Trying to connect the world through the stories she can share, Barbara left the rat race of the corporate world and threw caution straight into the wind. After jobs that paid the bills for a comfortable existence left her unfulfilled and an illness left her on the sidelines of life for a few years, she had had enough. No more listening to other people’s opinions and no more wasted time. At the age of 62, she has been filling her soul by traveling the world for more than eight years and has no plans to settle down. Here she shares her passion for traveling and what she believes are the gifts of travel.
Diregarding ‘The Mustn’ts’

“Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child, listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS, the IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES, then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child, ANYTHING can be.”
–Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends
Start most Shel Silverstein poems and somehow I can finish them. It’s strange, I agree, but for some reason, those poems have stuck with me for over thirty years. I remember listening as my parents read them and then getting to read them to my siblings when I got a bit older. Today, I buy them as brand new baby gifts to start libraries for a new generation. So many of the words are ingrained in my subconscious, but I don’t think I realized how tangible they were to adult life until, well, until I was in adult life! The Giving Tree is still one of my all time favourite books and I would say that my childhood can be summed up amidst Shel Silverstein and Doctor Seuss with a sprinkling of Judy Blume in those most difficult ‘tween’ years. But for some this weekend, today, ‘The Mustn’ts’ popped into my head. Read the rest of this entry