Last week I wrote about the unexpected loss of my brother, Ken. I mentioned that when terrible things happen, people tend to say, “It will all be okay,” but unfortunately this isn’t always true. What’s okay about a premature death? There’s no way to bring back a loved one, and that’s just not okay.
Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.
The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.
They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.
After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.
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Hi, everyone. Thanks for your patience and concern during the first blogging + social media hiatus I’ve taken in seven years.
I know a lot of people have been wondering what happened, so I’ll tell you. Read More
For more than twenty years, he flew to a different European city — every Wednesday. He never missed a week. Mr Mul (born in 1932) made more than 1,000 flights over a period of 20 years.
Travel is what you make it. In the early days of my travel quest to visit every country, I would get defensive when people asked why I only stayed in most countries for a relatively brief period of time. Unlike this guy, I left the airport and usually spent several days in a place—but still, I totally get why someone would love flying for the sake of flying.
It was all about an experience, about losing himself in the window seat and venturing to a different place. No matter that the place was "air world." Some of us like air world just fine.
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Hi, everyone! I’m still on blogging hiatus but am looking forward to getting back to daily writing very soon. Thanks for your understanding.
Hey everyone,
First, if you read the blog: you really are amazing. Thank you. Second, I’ve written here for more than seven years without a break—and I'm not anywhere close to being burned out. Why put a pause on something you love and find meaningful? Breaks are boring. This week, though, my family experienced an unexpected loss that has left us all shaken. While I would like to keep publishing posts without missing a beat, the reality is that I need to step away from the blog for a bit. How long is a bit? I’m not entirely sure right now. It will probably be at least 2-3 weeks, and possibly longer. I promise to be back as soon as I can. I love this work and will miss it while I’m gone. In the meantime, WDS is coming up in full force in Portland. We’re extremely excited to welcome thousands of people to town for our fifth annual celebration. If you’re coming, know that we have a highly capable team ready to welcome you. (And I’ll be there every moment too, of course.) Until we meet again, grace and peace be with you all. Chris Guillebeau Read More
This is a traveler case study. (Read others or nominate yourself.)
Dissatisfied with the typical suburban lifestyle, the Boyinks packed up their teenagers and hit the road. For the past five years, they've lived together in an RV, traveling America, meeting like-minded families and having adventures.Originally, we traveled based on what we wanted to see. Now, we focus on who we want to be with. We’ve made friends with other traveling families and route planning is more collaborative. Admittedly, there’s been some talk of finding land where we could all park our RV’s, let our kids hang out, grow a garden together, and just come and go as the need arises. The more we talk about it the more it starts to sound like a hippie commune...but maybe that isn’t so bad.
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Reading:
Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.
Link: Double Signup Bonus for Chase Freedom
While I’ve been writing a book and preparing to welcome a few people to town, I’ve been greatly neglectful in mentioning several great travel offers as of late. At any rate, there’s still time for this one: for the next few days, you can earn TWICE the usual signup bonus for one of the best no-fee offers out there, the Chase Freedom card. Technically, it’s described as $200 cash back after a low $500 minimum spend, and you can certainly get the card and put $200 in your pocket. There’s no annual fee, ever. However, the better use of the card for many people is to convert the $200 into 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points. Those points can then be used to transfer to any number of airline and hotel partners directly, and in many cases you’ll get a much better valuation than $200. Read More
This is a quest case study. (Read others or nominate yourself.)
Drought is on the minds of every Californian these days, but Samantha Bode took the water shortage a step further. First, she began to think about the water of Los Angeles itself—where it comes from, and why. This thinking led her on an exciting journey.My name is Samantha. This summer, I'm backpacking all 338 miles of the Los Angeles aqueduct, from Owens Valley in Inyo County to Upper Van Norman Lake in Granada Hills. The city of LA gets most of its water from hundreds of miles away, often leaving ecological destruction in its wake. On top of that, California is experiencing its worst drought on record, and people are not conserving water at the rate they need to in order to preserve this resource they need to live. We’re taking the journey and making a documentary, The Longest Straw, to raise awareness of water importation and management. We hope to encourage people to form a personal connection with their water by seeing where it comes from.
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What if there was one thing you could do to be a better friend, partner, or spouse?
It's pretty simple: to improve any relationship, honor the other person’s dreams.
Figure out what they want to do, to become, or achieve, and then help them do it. Don't do it for them—it's their dream, after all—but show interest and offer tangible support.
How can you do that today?
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I’m Sarah, and my partner is Scott. We met several years ago and fell in love - not just with each other, but also with the realization that we could fulfill lifetime dreams of traveling the world with the one we love. We've lived mostly in the Midwestern U.S., but Scott recently took a job teaching at a middle school on the island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas, where I’ll soon move full-time. One of our passions has been learning about the work of artisans we meet in our travels. This turned into an online business called From Around the Globe to help these artisans reach a wider audience. In doing this, we’re actually aligning with our core values: to be respectful, caring, and helpful members of the world community.Read More
I'm fortunate to work with great partners, including a wonderful design studio right in Southeast Portland called Jolby & Friends.
This is a quest case study. (Read others or nominate yourself.)
Have you ever wanted to go back to part of your school days knowing what you know now? In her part-Billy Madison style, part-personal development quest, Melia Dicker did just that.
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a kid, I loved to write stories and draw, but as I got older, I began to focus on school at the expense of everything else. I put immense pressure on myself to get perfect grades and test scores. I operated under the assumption that doing well in school would lead to a life as a happy, self-assured, and financially stable adult. But six years out of college, I realized that I was none of those things. The habits that had made me an excellent student were the very habits that made me terrible at being an autonomous adult.Read More