Category: Travel

The BRAVE Interview #20 March 2018: Crissy Maier

by Karen, posted in author, Being BRAVE, Catching women being brave, Interviews, no fear, The BRAVE Interviews, Travel

Here is this month’s BRAVE Interview with Crissy Maier!

  1. WHO are you? Someone who overcomes challenges. Whether it’s my cleft lip and palate, my learning disability, my struggles through the police academy, other health issues, problems at work – I’m not defined by any of them, but rather by my ability to integrate the lessons I’ve learned and to find ways to overcome the next challenge I will face.
  2. WHAT is your One Brave Thing? Sometimes I wonder if I’ve done it yet. I seem to have succeeded at everything I’ve tried, or at least not failed miserably. I might need to try something harder to really be brave. But when thinking about this question, I’m reminded of my first trip to Europe. I arrived in London, almost got lost going to my hotel even though I had step by step instructions. The next day I got on a hop on and off bus and at the stop in Trafalgar Square I wanted to get off the bus, but I was afraid of getting off the bus. In some ways it was an insignificant moment, but it’s a moment that I’ve reminded myself of many, many times. It’s a moment that inspired an entire chapter of my book.  It took a minute or two to talk myself into it, but I got off the bus at Trafalgar Square. I didn’t venture too far away from the bus stop, but I broke a barrier of fear. I traveled through Europe for two weeks before returning to London. When I did, I was a completely different person, I was taking the Tube to sites that I didn’t know how to get to and navigating the streets of London like I would the streets at home. It’s one of those rare opportunities in life when I got to see how much I had changed in a short period of time. When I’m afraid of something, I often think back to that experience.
  3. WHEN did you do it? That was in 2005
  4. WHERE did it occur? London and Europe
  5. HOW and WHY did you make it happen? The woman who stepped off the plane in London in 2005 was ready for adventure, to see the world. But she was afraid of the unknown, of getting lost. But she was more afraid of missing out, or being a “failure.” When fear holds us back, sometimes we need to break down what the fear is, and what the realistic ‘bad’ outcome is. When we think of it logically, it’s usually not nearly as bad as it seems. It’s not always easy to do, it takes time and discipline. More importantly though, I think knowing why you want to do something, and the cost of not doing it, can be enough to give you the discipline needed to overcome the fear you have. If I wasn’t committed to seeing London (in one day), then maybe I wouldn’t have gotten off the bus and found out that it’s not so scary to face your fear.

Thank you so much for sharing your brave story with us, Crissy!

Check out Crissy Maier’s book, Blue Sky Morning  

Read the other BRAVE interviews here: https://kwrites.com/?s=The+BRAVE+Interview

If YOU would like to be interviewed for this series about something brave you have done in your own life, send me an email here: kmcwrites@gmail.com

 

Be kind

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, celebrations, restaurants, Travel

I recently had the pleasure of travelling to meet hundreds of like-minded individuals and as part of this adventure, we all went out for dinner together (I know) at a restaurant that (I daresay) is not used to receiving parties of this size routinely.

We blew them away.

The kitchen went under in about thirty seconds. We learned that the staff that was desperately trying to prepare our food was all brand new.

Talk about trial by fire!

As a former restaurant manager and former graduate nurse, I was no stranger to this sink or swim indoctrination into a new job. It’s no fun, but one silver lining for both employer and employee is this: it often works. You know pretty quick who is cut out for the job and who is not.

Anyway, I was so proud of my group! We could see how hard they were all working to serve us, to keep their heads above water. How hard they were trying to get us what we needed as quick as they could under what was probably the most adverse conditions most of them had ever encountered on the  job.

They didn’t think about themselves. They thought about us.

A friend, Chris, pointed out that this reminded him of a quote:
BE KIND, FOR EVERYONE YOU MEET IS FIGHTING A HARD BATTLE. –Socrates

All of us were kind, patient, and used one of our secret weapons, humor, to keep this evening fun and productive. (Spoiler alert: We didn’t starve!) They kept at it until everyone was taken care of. They did their best, and isn’t that something we all aspire to? By them giving us this gift, we all received another gift.

The gift of community.

As we in the ‘audience’ observed and discussed ‘the performance’, we all learned more about each other (not to mention about ourselves).

Today’s actionable: “Give everyone the benefit of the doubt today…” ~Lori Deschene, Tiny Buddha’s 365 Tiny Love Challenges

Also, I have to say that I had one of the best bowls of soup I have ever had in my life at that restaurant!

Here are some other photos from the dinner:

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Kary Oberbrunner, Exposed! Behind the scenes at the Igniting Souls Conference 2017

by Karen, posted in author, Being BRAVE, books, Brave books, Catching women being brave, Clarity, education, friends, no fear, Travel, writing

Ever wonder about this Kary Oberbrunner guy?

I first met him online in a chatroom…No–wait! Kidding! I first met him online at one of the free webinars he hosted:

How to Turn a Book into a 6-Figure Business

My expectations were low.  Full disclosure: I watch a lot of free webinars. I am never motivated to buy anything at the end of them.  Anyway, the information that I got was so interesting and so in alignment with what I already knew and was currently doing (or trying to do), that I had to find out more about what this guy was teaching.  Also, I had to find out more about this guy in general.

So I did what women everywhere have been doing since the beginning of time when they needed to find out more about a guy:

I googled him.

Not one bad thing. Not one. On the entire internet.

This led to me becoming part of the Igniting Souls Tribe, which led to me going to the Igniting Souls Conference this year.

This was a much bigger deal for me.

I was taking big risks to go to this conference! 

  • I hadn’t flown alone since 1990 and had never changed planes before to get anywhere. If changing planes was required, it was a deal-breaker.
  • I would be leaving my daughter alone for a few days, and she didn’t want that.
  • Who would feed the chickens while I was away?
  • How would I get to the hotel from the airport?
  • What if I got stranded there? (I did, actually)

Yep; I was feeling the fear (nod to Susan Jeffers)

In the end, though, I did the thing I thought I could not do! (Nod to Eleanor Roosevelt)

I packed up all my fears and I went to Ohio. Alone. On the plane–two planes. No, four, counting the fights home!

In the morning before the first session of the conference started, I heard a song playing over the speakers. I could feel it inside me. This wasn’t just any song.

This was one of my favorite songs in the world:

Con Te Partiro by Andrea Bocelli.

Translation: Time to Say Goodbye. And I realized that I had done exactly that. By making this trip, I said ‘Goodbye’ to my fears and ‘Hello’ to my faith and confidence in myself. When I heard this song playing, I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be, doing exactly what I was supposed to do.

So, who is this Kary guy? He’s the guy who you can’t find anyone to say anything bad about. And at the Igniting Souls Conference, there were hundreds of people saying only good things. About him. About each other. It was one of the best gatherings that I have ever been part of. Ever.
Thank you, Kary, and thank you to all the amazing members of this tribe, in which I am blessed to be included.

I am leaving you with this, my favorite version of Con Te Partiro, which Andrea Bocelli sings with Sarah Brightman. I hope you feel it, too.

Here is a slideshow of some moments from my trip and #IgnitingSoulsConference17

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The BRAVE Interview #14 September 2017: Sylvia Wesley

by Karen, posted in Adult children, Being BRAVE, Catching women being brave, family, Interviews, relationships, The BRAVE Interviews, Travel, Turning 50

Here is this month’s BRAVE Interview with Sylvia Wesley! Enjoy!

  1. WHO are you? I’m a 61-year-old white woman—wife, mother, nurse, and pseudo-bon vivant!
  2. WHAT is your One Brave Thing? Sometimes I feel like just living every day is a Brave Thing and it is difficult to choose a single event!  As a nurse, it seems like so many of my ‘brave things’ encompass caring for people—my dad and my brother, who both died of cancer; my mom with multiple surgeries; friends with HIV/AIDS.  As a mom I gave birth to twins who were 10 weeks premature and their first 6 months of life was pretty hectic, to put it mildly.  As a wife, still being married after 38 years could be considered brave—but probably the bravest aspect there is that I married a black man in 1979, only 12 years after the Supreme Court ruled interracial marriage was not illegal, and our early years involved some struggles in a very white New England. So, after all that, I decided to choose a joyous adventure as my One Brave Thing—I went to Burning Man!
  3. WHEN did you do it? 8/28-9/1, 2006
  4. WHERE did it occur? Black Rock Desert, NV
  5. HOW did you make it happen? Mostly my daughter made the initial experience happen.  She had been going to Burning Man for a few years and always marveled at how awesome it was and she was sure I would love it.  So for my 50th birthday, I was given a ticket to TTITD (aka ‘that thing in the desert’).  Which meant I would be sharing camping space with 38,000+ other adventuring nomads for a week in rather hostile environmental conditions, and only knowing one other person.  A little scary having to be self-reliant in an unknown situation, camping with my daughter’s friends who only had her assurances that I was ‘fun, non-judgmental, fully capable of taking care of myself, and would not act like everybody’s mother.’  So I packed my bags and flew to LA.  We readied all our camping equipment, some party outfits, food and water for a week, and did a 12 hour ride/drive-share to the event with a heretofore unknown person.  After 12+ hours, in a very small mini-van, we were all fast friends.  Getting to and from is just as much of an adventure as being there!
  6. WHY did you do it? For the adventure!  It was one of the best experiences of my life—the bigger-than-life art, the music, the people, the sense of oneness—all magnificent.  I came away with a whole new sense of self.  And as my daughter predicted, I would want to go every year after that, and did so for the next 7 years.  ‘Life’ has since interrupted my annual trek, and I have not been for the past 3 years, but look forward to resuming visits to my personal Mecca in the near future.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, Sylvia!

If anybody wants to learn more about the culture that is Burning Man, go to https://burningman.org/

Read the other BRAVE interviews here: https://kwrites.com/?s=The+BRAVE+Interview

If you would like to be interviewed for this series about something brave you have done in your life, email me at kmcwrites@gmail.com!

Tidying up food

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, Karen's Kitchen, Pantry Project, Travel

tidying upI have only been taking baby steps with my The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo book since I did the clothing category. I am motivated, but I haven’t had an uninterrupted block of time to tackle the next category (books) yet.
Well, that’s my excuse, anyway.

Since then, I have been scrutinizing other areas of my home through my new ‘tidy eye’, and here’s what I’ve discovered.

I am not a tidy person.

Anyway, this week I have given myself a challenge that is tied to my goals to

  1. Be more tidy and
  2. Spend less money.

I am not going to spend any money on meals or drinks when I am out this week. I am going to eat and feed the fam using the food I already have in the pantry, fridge, and freezer.

I have a lot.

My husband and I figure that conservatively, we are spending $150 a week on food. At the end of this week of not spending any money on food, we will deposit that $150 in the bank (in our new “Go to Italy in 2016” fund, perhaps? 🙂 )

Anyone else want to do this with me? Just for one week. I started October 2nd and will end the week October 9th. You can start today, or tomorrow.

If you decide to try it, I would LOVE to hear how it goes for you, so please consider commenting below.

As Liz Gilbert (speaking of ‘eat’-ing, and oh! of Italy!) would say, “Onward!”

Wherever I go, there they are

by Karen, posted in Crystals, education, friends, He and me, health, Metaphysical healing, Travel

image

For a long time now, every time I go to the beach, a particular kind of blue stone calls to me: Karen!! Yoohoo! Here I am! “Pick me! Choose me! Love me!” (borrowed this quote from a movie but at the moment it escapes me which one). For over a year this has been happening. I have all different shapes (even heart-shaped!) and sizes of these beautiful blue rocks, so many that before last winter I brought some of them outside and scattered them in my yard.

A few weeks ago, I heard them calling to me again and I retrieved a few and brought them back inside (was that wrong??).

Over the past several months, I have been wanting to know exactly what these stones are. I have tortured my friends with questions about them (But what do you really think it is?). I have scoured books and the internet for pictures resembling my stones with no success. I have asked the stones themselves to tell me what they are (they told me they were quartz). I thought, “BUT YOU ARE BLUE!” Is there such a thing as blue quartz?

So, I packed up my stones and  my husband and I went to Bethel and met Maggie (I hope I spelled her name correctly!) at the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum. I showed her my rocks. She knew right away what they were.

Smoky Quartz!

So, I said, “But why are they BLUE? Smoky quartz is not blue!” Without missing a beat, she asked, “Did you find these near a river or the ocean?”

🙂

I did.

It turns out that being in the ocean, over time, turns smoky quartz blue. When I told her these rocks are following me everywhere, she said, “Maybe you need some grounding…”

Who, me?

 

Disney

by Karen, posted in family, no fear, teens, Travel

me space mtnI went to Disney once before, in 1989 (or thereabouts). There was one ride I wanted to go on then: Space Mountain. I have no idea why, but I was fixated on it. When we got there, the first thing I did was ask where that ride was and, guess what? Space Mountain was CLOSED. Yep. I know, right? Unbelievable.

Fast forward (OMG-I just had to use a calculator to make sure this number was correct) twenty-six years to the present. Twenty-six years during which all of my friends and family were subject to hearing that story. Over and over.

And over.

I was going back to Disney with my daughter. It was her first trip there. It was her birthday present. It was all about her.

Except for this: this was all about me. I had a FastPass for us for Space Mountain. We got there. I made her take my picture in front of it. We found the FP entrance and went in. We got in line and…my daughter freaked out. She didn’t want to go on it! Now I had a moral dilemma. After twenty-six years, I was finally going to put this urban legend to rest, but am I the kind of mother would force my distraught daughter to get on a ride when she didn’t want to?

You bet I am.

The only way out of it is through it.

I think this is a good lesson for life in general.

N.B. In my defense, afterward she said it turned out to be her favorite ride at Magic Kingdom.

🙂

To boldly go, part two

by Karen, posted in Disney, teens, Travel

bon voyageSo a funny thing happened after I decided to go to Disney with  my daughter. You know how they say that the universe starts lining up to help you when you are on the right track? Well, it’s TRUE! I saw it happen with my own eyes!
First I thought, no way can I make this happen. Then my husband Bill said, “Of course, you can do it! You’ll figure it out.”

I was nervous about arranging getting there and back. Like, which airline? How do you book a flight? How much is reasonable to pay? Which airport? Then my son Anthony and his girlfriend Hannah, my friends at work (you know who you are!! Thank you!!!), gave me information that helped make this whole process easy.
I was overwhelmed with the thought of figuring out where to stay. My brother Patrick and his wife Andrea came through for me big time with this too, offering to let us stay at their amazing time share.

How would we get to the airport in time for our flight? We would have to get there by, oh, 6am or so and the airport is an hour and a half away. Also, I am directionally challenged. I can’t read a map. What if I got lost and we missed our flight? Then I my friend Ann said, “Hey, I want to help you and your daughter with your trip to Disney.” It turns out that she can see the airport from where she lives. She offered to let us come down the night before, eat dinner and stay over at her house, and then she would drive us to and from the airport on our departure and return days.

My friends Cindy and Laura offered to help in as well with anything else we might need. I am sorry if I have not named everyone who came forward. I appreciate you all!

My coworkers surprised me with a card with money to have a meal on them. Thank you Lynn, Christine, Charlotte, Lori, Laurie, Catherine, Pauline, Annette, Therese, Patti, Barbara, Carol, Sue, and Sheila. 🙂

Almost forgot: Shawna, thank you for the maps! And your advice!  🙂

I have no words.

To boldly go, part one

by Karen, posted in Adult children, family, my one word, teens, Travel

disney blog 1My daughter has been asking to go to Disney since she was about 9 years old. I would always listen to her ask, nod, smile, and say that tried and true line that I’d borrowed from my own mother: “We’ll see.” I got away with that for, oh, 5 years or so. Five years during which she watched many of her friends go to Disney. Five  years during which she watched her older brother go to Disney (in fairness, I never took him either-he was an adult and paid his own way when he went). Five years during which she got older and smarter and my “We’ll see” was starting to fall a little flat, even to my own ears.

A few years ago, she changed her tack; instead of asking to go, she started asking to go for her sixteenth birthday. That changed the game completely. That was a line in the sand. “We’ll see” is timeless, fluid, eternal. “By my sixteenth birthday” was a finish line. I stopped saying, “We’ll see” to my daughter and started thinking, “What if…?” to myself.

Since my one word this year is ‘brave’, the ‘what if’s’ have become more insistent. So what if I haven’t been on a plane in, oh, 25 years or so? So what if my vacation hours at work are precious and few? My daughter will only turn sixteen once. So what if park passes cost more than the airfare? So what if we live far away from an airport with a direct flight to where we are going? So what if the idea of getting us there and back is, um, terrifying?

We’re going.