Happy New Year!

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Interview: Pack for a Purpose (one of National Geographic Traveler’s Top ten Travelers of the Year)

I first heard of Rebecca Rothney when National Geographic Travelers announced their 2014 Travelers of the Year. Instantly I felt a connection. As a former teacher with a love of travel and volunteering I had to reach out. We’ve consistently been amazed at the kindness of strangers when we travel and have always felt (and taught) that as travelers, we are all ambassadors from our home countries. Compassion, understanding, a genuine nature and embracing the local culture goes a long way.

Mat and I have often brought supplies with us to donate when we travel but nothing as organized as Pack for a Purpose. I wanted to find out more. There was an instant connection on our call as we chatted for quite awhile about world travel, community, and the ongoing benefits of giving back. This innovative not-for-profit makes it incredibly simple to add charitable goodness to your travels at home or abroad. Head to the website to see if wherever you’re going there’s a Pack for a Purpose hotel with which to connect and enhance local communities that need your help. If everyone could bring a little communities can gain a lot. A book, a stethoscope, a stuffed animal or a pack of crayons yields smiles, good will and hope. You can still spend your days at the beach, roaming that city you always dreamed of seeing, or filled with action packed adventure – but a few kilos and a few minutes that might not change your bank account can truly affect the world, bring a sense of purpose to your travels and change lives for the better. How could you not get on board with that?

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.

In the Galapagos (Ecuador) with giant tortoises

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.