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.

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).