About Me (Barbara Weibel)

Barbara Weibel After years of working 70 hours a week at jobs I detested, I felt like the proverbial "hole in the donut" - solid on the outside, but empty on the inside. Searching for meaning in my life, I abandoned my successful but unsatisfying career and set out on a six-month solo backpacking trip around the world to pursue my true passions of travel, writing, and photography. My blog features stories about the destinations I visit, people I meet, the crazy things...Read more here....


Monthly Archives: July 2008

Since starting this blog in November of 2006, I have used a series of tag lines to describe what it is about. Initially, I used “Traveling the world, following my joy.” By the time I had I returned from my around-the-world backpacking trip last fall, I realized that joy comes from within. This realization, along with the fact that I had completed my long-term travels for the immediate future, led me to change my tag line a few times, until I finally settled on “One woman’s midlife crisis and her search for a meaningful life

Although the search for a meaningful life continues to describe my quest, I have often wondered about the validity of the “midlife crisis” part of the tag line. I’ve done the math. I’m 56 years old. If this is a midlife crisis, my statement implies that Continue reading

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For many years people asked me how I could function in business without wearing a watch. Recently, it occurred to me that no one has questioned my refusal to wear a watch for quite a long time, and so I began checking out people to see how many were wearing watches. I must have looked at a hundred wrists and only spotted two or three. We simply don’t need watches anymore. When we’re driving, there’s a digital clock in the car. At home, there are digital clocks on the stove, microwave, and TV. The time is displayed our on computers and our cell phones. Even my iPod displays the time.

That made me think about other things that have been rendered obsolete due to advances in technology. Cashiers no longer count back change at the store because cash registers do the figuring for them. Hand-held calculators have virtually Continue reading

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Key West is a free-wheeling, hard-partying kind of place that never seems to sleep. It’s the kind of place you come to people-watch. Key Wet bicyclersA place where anything goes, as long as you’re not hurting yourself or anyone else. Where else can you see a man drive by on a Harley with an African Green Parrot perched calmly on his shoulder? Where tourists ride bicycles down the main street wearing only swimsuits? Where the taxis have bike racks mounted on their rear bumpers for those who get too drunk to ride their bikes back Continue reading

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I may alienate some people with this post, but I feel strongly that the above video contains important information that everyone needs to hear. If you are offended, please consider that our ability to freely express our opinions is one of the things that makes this country great. You may not agree with my opinion, nor I with yours, but isn’t it wonderful that we can express them without fear of reprisal?

It has astounded and mystified me that we have allowed our current President to get away with actions that have led to the death of more than 4,000 American soldiers. From the beginning, I never believed his claims that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and by now everyone (hopefully) understands that there was no direct link between Iraq and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. At the the very least Bush is guilty of narrow-mindedness and less than admirable intelligence. But now, Vincent Bugliosi has written a book titled “The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder.”

Who is Bugliosi and what makes his opinion different or more important than anyone else who may have heretofore made similar claims? Bugliosi is highly credible because Continue reading

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A few years ago, Alex Cequea Fuentes wondered what would it be like to meditate in a public place where there is a lot of traffic, like a busy intersection or a shopping mall. His question ultimately led him to create the Public Meditation Project, a social and spiritual movement dedicated to bridging the gap between inner peace and world peace. The group now holds events in public places all over the country, including San Francisco, Chicago, Iowa City, and Houston. Alex’s says his goal is to create change from the feeling level. “The best case scenario is that people walk past and feel the peace. Then they momentarily become peaceful, and the people they are with become peaceful. This is world change from the core of our beings.” Reactions to these events vary, as you can imagine, but some of the funniest come from mall security guards. Check out this absolutely hysterical entry in Alex’s blog that describes one such experience at the Katy Mills Mall in Katy, Texas, then take a look at this video of Alex meditating in public places:



In a similar vein, in 1977 two American Buddhist Monks from San Francisco’s Gold Mountain Monastery began a bowing pilgrimage from downtown L.A. to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talamage, California near Ukiah. Heng Sure has made the vow to bow to the ground in a full prostration every three steps along the road. Continue reading

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Day after day I write and receive no responses, until I sometimes wonder if anyone is actually reading my blog. Then suddenly, I’ll post something that hits a nerve and lots of people will comment or email me. The story about the lion, “Love Knows No Bounds,” was one of those posts. In addition to public comments, I received a private email from one reader, who wrote:

“I absolutely loved the lion video. Humans should be more like animals don’t you think?”

I never really thought about it before, but maybe we should all try to be more like animals. They show unconditional love, are non-judgmental, do not gossip or criticize, and do not have egos. My intention is to never say or think negative things about people, but my behavior always seems to fall short. No sooner have I Continue reading

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