“At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable.” –Christopher Reeve It’s hard to believe that what started as a Big Hairy Audacious Dream, less than a year ago, turned into an Adventure of Hope filled with more connection, purpose, and love than I could have imagined. Thanks to the contributions of 110 individual donors and the corporate sponsorship of GO Overseas, CLOUD, First Descents, and Flight Centre...

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‘Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” Napoleon Hill How’s your dreaming mojo doing these days? Did it get buried under an onslaught of responsibilities, hidden beneath rising credit card debt, or forgotten amidst kids soccer games and getting the garbage to the curb each week? My dreaming mojo disappeared around 1993. With my feathered and...

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When was the last time you felt like a complete and total failure? Was it the first week of your new job when you didn’t want to admit that you had no idea what you were doing? Or perhaps the first three sleep-deprived months of parenthood when you asked yourself who the HELL decided you should be entrusted with the life of a tiny, completely dependent human being? My latest pit stop in the land of frustration and self-recrimination...

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If you read Saturday’s post, So Intense – I Can Almost Taste It, you will know that volunteering on almost every continent can get a little heavy on the ‘ol emotional front. When I’m falling asleep at night, images of orphans, cancer patients, and detained street kids often dance in my head (what I wouldn’t give to see some sheep or a few straight-out-of-the-Nutcracker sugarplums). So, when I rolled over on my top...

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Like a wounded dog, kicked one too many times by its sadistic master, her coal black eyes slide back and forth across the room as she tucks a lock of limp hair behind her ear. Even when I pull a game of Monopoly out of a white plastic bag, she doesn’t glance over. Instead, she remains in the corner, twirling her hair around her finger and staring, between the rusted iron bars, down at the street below. I follow her gaze down to the dusty,...

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