the dreaming Press.

stoke the fires of your *atlas* heart

A couple, {heck a few!} urgent things. I'll get to them most hurriedly, so you don't waste a single precious moment that you could be using to sign on for grand explorations and juicy adventures {that you so deserve}.

First, my friend Debbie wants to extend an invitation for you to go to INDIA.

Second,my beautiful blogging friend Lisa has a deadline to meet, so that she can go to MEXICO.

Third, my friend Tara is hostessing the best life-changing trip {trust me, I've done it}, to JORDAN.

Last,but certainly not least, I am taking a group of women through the Women's Travel Network to MOROCCO.

So, now with all of these updates your way...it's all up to you. Maybe it's time to pay it forward and give a little to see another realize the work of her dreams...or maybe it's that time to pack a suitcase with your camera, your journal and a couple of pairs of undies, sunscreen...and hit the road to realize your own sweeping and vast dreams.

I've prioritized the list according to time deadlines. Lisa will need your help within the next ten days. Debbie has room for you up until tomorrow only.

The other two are very important, but can be discussed in another upcoming post real soon. If I were you I'd head over to see the INDIA and MEXICO links first. Thanks friends, fellow adventurers and loving hearts. You are all cherished, deeply, each of you. xo

p.s. photo of the lovely blue doorway taken from a bumbling yet speeding van in the Middle East while driving along sharing cups of hot nuts and listening to this or something like it...in March 2010

reach for new heights~

 

 Christine Mason Miller's bejewelled wrist & graceful hand. Photo taken earlier this year in Petra, as part of Tara Bradford's Journey To Jordan photography trip.

These last couple of days my heart strings have been tugged on quite a bit.  I've welled up.  I've teared up.  I've sniffled a few times.  A few people have really cracked me open.  Wide open. I wish to thank them for that. They make me long to reach for new heights, stretch myself further, go the distance with my life. Read and see if you agree with me, I'm sure you will.

First, Relyn.  Relyn blogs at Come Sit By My Fire.  She posted a list of prudent advice for her daughter Sloane.  Go read it, you'll want to print it out and share it with your daughters, your sons, and your best friends.  Relyn has a warm heart and always blogs her personal truths.  She has been one of my biggest inspirations.

Second, a woman I don't even know.  At all.  But my mother knew her.  My friend Maithri knew her.  Here is her blog.  She recently passed on but left such a glowing legacy I had to share her with you.  She will gobsmack you with how richly she lived her life.  Go read, go cry.  Go be envious like I was.  Leave her space wanting to reach a little higher.  Thank you Tessa, for your inspirations.  I know your words will continue to ignite a living passion in others like wildfire.

Thirdly, and I say this with a lump in my throat.  Life is fleeting.  Life is beautiful.  Cherish those you love and hold them dear.  For it is but a blink in the twinkly night sky.  Blessed are we who have known the love of a most wonderful mother.  If you still have yours close, make sure you tell her how much she means to you today.

Okay, had to get that out there.  Life isn't always bowls of cherries ya know! If anyone has extra, or is feeling inspired to help, please check out my friend Maithri's organization to see where you fit in.  Who knows, I may bump into you in Swaziland one of these days.  Tessa donated proceeds from her art to PDI, it was a cause that touched her heart.

xoxo

Gillian

p.s. i love you :)

It dawned on me, there is no such thing as time.

Inside an old church they are restoring at the Citadel, Amman, Jordan. March 2010

I had the pleasure of meeting a fabulous woman through a vibrant and funny friend of mine the other day.  Powerful ideas and gifts were exchanged; simply through animated and open conversation.

I have to say I attract in the most brilliant and gifted people.  I'm so very lucky. Now as a result of this meeting, great things are going to happen!  Isn't life a gift? I'm so jazzed about it, that I'm scribbling notes..ideas..and thoughts quicker than my hand can write.

I sat in a "reflection" park today, amidst the flowers, underneath a giant pine tree that was strung with fairy lights and words carved in stone set randomly about {empathy, responsibility, integrity...}...and I simply journalled to my heart's content.  Don't you just love it when ideas flow through you like that, as though you were some divine vessel of the Universe itself?  Wait, I am a divine vessel through which the Universe speaks.  So are you!  You already knew that, I hope.

I love my little journal, it is from a small press and was a gift from a friend. In there I have story ideas, lists of things I need....BlackBerry...Macbook Air....paper lanterns...purple candles...cardamom tealights...white roses...you get the idea.  It is also full of reminders and poetry and quotes.  Journals are chunks of life in a small contained space.  Microcosm's if you will.

I'll leave you now with the most beautiful thought which I will get to after I set the scene; for 33 years I've had a close friend and just recently her classy and caring mother passed away quite suddenly.  We did the most incredibly honourable thing- we wildly scattered her ashes in a private lake side ceremony that was replete with skipping stones, picking flowers and reading poetry while mourning doves cooed at us directly overhead in the old tree by the water.  Children chased frogs, we cried and remembered, and suddenly I felt that there is no such thing as time. I was seven years old again, in the company of this funny and wonderful friend of mine. It is enchanting how symbolic it is to set someone free to the four winds, up the ashes fly and then they indeed scatter in the wind, very mystically. After a deep breath, "Mum go be free!" my friend cried, as she threw the ashes into the air.  Then later, "She would have loved that," my friend tells me.  I agreed.

Funny how a sad time can connect people together in such a poignant way. I felt so happy and honoured to have been included in their sacred and private occasion. To them I say...thank you. To you I say, that is all for today. xo

reach across the ocean to make someone else's heart right~

Recently, a series of posts on one of my favourite blogs has focused on the fallout of the Rwandan genocide that occured in 1994.

In just about 100 days, approximately 750,000 people were killed by the most horrific methods imaginable.  Those left behind were tortured, raped and punished beyond all reason.  Orphans, and widows were left crippled and emotionally and physically traumatized, to put the pieces back together of what had been taken from them. 

The blogsite posting about this issue is Maryam's My Marrakesh.  Maryam is a democracy specialist, when she isn't at her home in Marrakesh building a boutique hotel with her architect husband Chris, and their two children.  Currently she is in Rwanda, interviewing widows getting their stories of the genocide.  One survivor, Vestine, has a story you won't soon forget.  Visit Maryam's blog to read the stories, and to contribute to a PayPal account that is being set up to collect funds for the organization that is helping the widows and orphans...if you would like to help.  EDIT: The PayPal account for donations is set up at Maryam's blog.  Give what you can.  A little, or a lot.  It all adds up. xo

 

War Survivors Ministries, www.charityadvantage.com; photo courtesy of.

Last year on our blogs my mother and I gave gifts of goats to Rwandan families, which helps them start small dairy farms and also is a means for them to eat and drink.  Goats can survive pretty much anywhere and can eat pretty much anything, so it is a great way for families to start up a business.  If you are interested in helping that way this Christmas, as a corporate gift or the gift for us that don't really need anything...it is such a thoughtful, affordable gesture.  Visit www.theHungerSite.com to obtain further details. 

Look at those sweet faces above, it is hard to imagine leaving beautiful children like that parentless and alone in the world.  It is hard to imagine any human being with a heart being able to inflict pain like this on undeserving human beings. 

If you have any spare time to visit Maryam's blog to read up on this, and donate, it will do your heart, and their hearts, a world of good.

xo