Earlier this year, I turned 50.

I had just returned from 7 months living overseas, so I decided to invite a small group of friends—I call them my “yard” because they are the people who surround me and infuse my home with love whenever they visit—to celebrate.

Together, our ages spanned four decades, and as we sat around the table, laughed, ate and drank, it occurred to me that the experience felt similar to a vision I had over two years ago.

I’ve come to call it “My Extraordinary.”

It’s an exercise in which I regularly imagine the most beautiful life possible for myself. I go to a favorite peaceful place where I can be alone and I imagine and feel it all with my five senses.

Not long after I got divorced at age 46, I planned a solo trip to Europe.

Just before leaving, I had a conversation with my therapist, who reminded me that I now had a blank canvas on which to create a beautiful, new life.

But rather than inspire me, the idea of that blank canvas terrified me.

It was white. Blank. And I not only had no idea what to do with it, I was afraid to even begin picturing what life should look like now.

Like many women who travel after a profound loss like divorce, I hoped my time away would bring healing as well as clarity around what my new canvas—my life—might look like. As my trip unfolded, travel became a beautiful healer and a catalyst for opening my mind to new possibilities. Slowly, I began to catch glimpses of this new canvas and what it held. As I look back today, I can see several steps that helped me along the way. They might help you, too. 

Elizabeth Gilbert inspired countless women to take their “Eat, Pray, Love” trips - yet for many women, these trips remain an elusive dream.

Dawn enables women who were previously paralyzed in fulfilling their travel dreams to not only take their trip, but also discover forgotten or unknown parts of their being that they can celebrate and make a part of their life after their trip.

So for my first guest blog contributor, I asked Dawn to put together a list of books that can empower women to fulfill their travel dreams. I love this list and confess - that I have not read any of them! So here’s to an ever-growing TBR pile (To Be Read).

In honor of the fact that this year I finally crossed the ocean after a very LOOOONGGGG few years of staying close to home (eeeeeeek!), and the fun recent occurrence of being in The Washington Post’s Sunday Travel Section …. I made a list of must-see spots in a region of the world I absolutely love.

And if there are any Enneagram 9s out there—or if you’re friends with one—this list is an especially Enneagram 9-friendly one (aka: lots of cozy spots and opportunities for chilling out or randomly wandering around to enjoy beauty, tranquility and meaningful conversations with those along the way)!

I often feel guilty about feeling happy, about being away in Europe to write for three months when I know not everyone has this luxury. I know so many others are not enjoying a beautiful life. Do I dare to delight in my own?

This morning, I wake up to a voice. Not a loud God-is-speaking-to-me-with-lightning-bolts kind of voice, but more of an internal knowing kind of voice. It’s a voice that I’ve learned to listen to over the last few years because it usually comes with what I believe is Divine wisdom.

“Go to St. Sophia today,” says the voice.

Being willing to give things up creates space for new beginnings to take root.

“Creating a life that’s rich with learning, unlearning and evolution (aka aliveness) also requires you to lay down your need to have it all figured out or fit into a prescribed box… you are in uncharted territory without a map, making it up as you go, one brave step at a time. This is where the good stuff happens….you’re a badass for even being in the room.” - The Art of Aliveness by Flora Bowley, chapter 4

There is so much in Flora’s words that I hate. I want to be able to say it’s all untrue. I want to give her ideas the middle finger and an incredibly massive F-You.

But I also know that I’m literally living this out in real time. And unfortunately for the perfectionist-planner-who wants-to-always-have-it-all-figured-out, I’m realizing (insert sigh) it’s all actually true.

Dammit.