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

Ana bahebik Tara!

A flower in Jordan, for my friend in Paris.  Happy birthday, feliz cumpleanos, ana bahebik and feliz aniversario to Tara; adventurer, writer, photographer and friend based currently in Paris and soon to be Amsterdam!

Tara is a truly gifted writer and photographer, world wide traveller, life adventurer and trip facilitator.  {Of course that is only the tip of the iceberg.}  I was fortunate to have had the pleasure of meeting her online in 2006.  Then in New York City in 2008.  Then again in Jordan in 2010.  Where we meet next is anyone's guess but we will, that is for certain. There are talks of trains, films and Delhi....

Happy birthday Tara, may there be many fun filled trips, many happy returns, beautiful soulful images captured on your many cameras and many wishes come true for you today! Much love to you today and always. xoxo

I love people. Just love 'em. (From the Maritimes to the Middle East)

I took this photo of my friend Zohrab recently in Nova Scotia, at a place called Burntcoat Head.  {My thoughts are with him as he flies over the Atlantic right now on his way home to Amman.} This glorious place full of red rock and sandstone boasts the highest tides in the world.  The highest.  For this reason they are in the running for New7Wonders of Nature.  Pretty amazing-right? So would you kindly go and vote at www.VoteMyFundy.com and help a great nation like Canada rank among the best of the best?  I will only nag you periodically about this (or aboot this, depending on my accent) so as not to annoy you.  That in itself is so very Canadian, the fact that I don't want to trouble you to help my great nation win.  If it isn't an imposition, please go vote.  You know, the Bedouin helped to put Petra in the world spotlight.  I think together we can do the same for this place of wondrous beauty, The Bay of Fundy. Not only are the tides the highest, the people are the greatest! That should be a category.  "People who make the world a better place." Selfless, fun loving, proud and strong.  Oops, just aboot described every Canadian in that last sentence.

Happy Canada Day! How can I forget?  Our winner of the gift certificate is a Canadian herself, *Jen M* congrats to you! CSNStores will contact you to get you your prize. Thanks to all who shared their love of music with me.  There were some very poetic suggestions.  My soul is touched- I thank you.  I am open to suggestions as you know, but only if they are kind, and selfless.  :)

As for Petra, this wonder of the world, this place where I met my friend Zohrab-please go to Tara's site for the next trip which will blow your mind. (See for yourself why it is one of the New7.)  After all, we all love an adventure that leads us beyond our front doors, don't we?

See you in Jordan (where lo and behold if we have our way, you'll meet the Mi'kmaq too). xoxo

The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams.~Elizabeth Gilbert (love her too!)

P.S. Here is a nugget you may appreciate, as told to me from the Universe in a divine letter...Insecurity is the greatest social pirahna of our time.  How many of YOU have fallen victim unnecessarily to insecurity? Drop the illusion!  You are as good or better.  Don't ever forget. xo (olé to you nonetheless)

 

Juxtapositions.

Going through literally thousands of old photos.

Reminiscing about one year ago today being in the West Village with my two SIL's drinking red and eating pizza at Johns! on Bleecker. {Oh the stories we could tell you.}

But perhaps another day. :)

Julian and I spoke tonight on what fuels us.  Change.  We thrive on it.

We aren't the types to live in one house for thirty years.  We must always continue to strive for more; different and better life experiences. {That doesn't mean we don't stress about the electric bill.  We do.}

Don't be surprised if one year from now we live in Arizona or Amsterdam.  Just sayin'.

Never stop striving people.  Never.  Life is meant to deal you many "lives".  Go live 'em.

xoxox p.s. The first photo in Amman (taken seconds before the minarets bellowed the call to prayer) shows you children in Western dress passing by women in traditional dress...and there are two windows...one with freshly butchered goat and one with stuffed bears.  Hence the juxtapositons.  On our last emotion ridden day in Jordan, Christine asked us what one word we would use to sum up our time in Jordan.  I said, mystical.  {I was moved deep into my core being. Teary.}

My friend Donna said, "juxtapositions." Very accurate, miss. xo

Profound.

This little flower was a gift to me (thank you Wiliam), immediately preceding a hot herbal tea on a mountaintop at sunset surrounded by friends, family and the beautiful Jordanian countryside.  In the distance you could see the snowcapped mountains of Syria.

The reason this is so profound, is that it is one of my life's ordinary sparkling moments.

Not just because I was in an exotic country, with perfect or near-to perfect circumstances...the tea could have been in my livingroom with my dog at my heels.  Or at my mother's kitchen table.  Or anywhere in the world for that matter.  But it was profound because I soaked it in; relegating it to memory forevermore, for recall at a date in my future when it will serve me well to pull it out and revel in it. 

Take today to look for the ordinary and sparkly moments that swim about you in your ocean of reality.  I'm sure you are completely surrounded by them, as am I.

xoxo Enjoy the day!

p.s.  I anxiously await the arrival of my two copies of the book...one is a gift for a friend in deep grief.  Never pass up a chance to share the light. Oh, and the author shared that profound sparkling moment with me and the others.  That she was there and has become part of our lives and eternal memory now is a gift. :)