I’ve always envied people who love their jobs. Unlike those lucky souls, my various careers over the years (marketing, advertising, selling real estate, working in a retail store, owning a public relations firm, and selling snow cones in the largest water park in Puerto Rico, among others) were just means to an end – a way to earn money and have a comfortable lifestyle. I never loved what I did and I can’t really say I was ever really happy, but I plodded on because I was raised to be dependable, to always give 110%, and to work hard in order to be able to enjoy a comfortable retirement. All of which meant going to work every day, regardless of how much I despised my job.
Author, Barbara Ann Weibel
I knew I wasn’t being true to myself. My inner voice constantly nagged, “Who am I, why am I here, and what is my purpose in life?” I had often heard that we should do what what we love, what makes us joyful. So I asked myself, “What makes me joyful?” But I had no answer. I knew there had to be something better out there; I just didn’t know what it was. Then I got sick. Really sick.
My health had been failing for some time but the doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong. More than once it was implied that my illness was all in my head. Finally, after five years of suffering, I was diagnosed with what had by then become chronic Lyme disease. During the initial treatment I was practically bedridden. Since I could barely drag myself from the bed to the couch (much less go to work) I had a lot of time to examine my life. I decided that things had to change. I was like a donut – a wonderful outer shell with an empty, hollow inside. I could no longer ignore the need to feel that I was living a purposeful life. I needed to fill the hole in my donut. Again I asked myself, “What brings me joy?” This time, I had some answers. Photography. Writing. And travel. I promised myself that when I recovered I would find a way of living that focused on those things that bring me joy.
As soon as I was healthy enough, I left my job, strapped on a backpack, and traveled solo around the world for six months, determined to visit the places I’d always wanted to see. I traveled without major plans, went wherever the wind blew me, took thousands of photos along the way, and blogged about every place I visited. Upon returning to the States in September of 2007, I relocated to Florida and continued to travel more than half of the time, while simultaneously pursuing freelance writing opportunities. By the end of 2009 I was traveling so much that it made no sense to maintain an apartment, so I sold or gave away my remaining furniture and hit the road full time.
Today I move from country to country, staying a minimum of a month in most places in order to immerse in the culture. Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel feature stories about these destinations; the interesting people I meet, the crazy (and often humorous) things that happen to me along the way, and the never-ending spiritual lessons that come from travel. With its self-deprecating humor and focus on the inner journey as well as the outer, Hole In The Donut has attracted a loyal following of readers who travel with me vicariously. So grab a chair and settle in for some unique and interesting travel stories.
United Kingdom 
France 
Morocco 
Czech Republic 
Slovenia 
Croatia 
Hungary 
Romania 
I just came across your site and so glad I did!! I’ve been working around a plan to travel now for over a year, a thought i got long before that but only took it seriously about a year ago. The idea / concept allows me to travel and earn, my dream has always been to travel but i wanted to do it with a means to earn, hence I came up with a few ideas. When I knew this, I too gave up everything, including a relationship (which I hung onto and wasted many years cos of it) moved here to my daughter to get my plans up and ready but am procrastinating, worrying too much about taking someone with me and who it should be, and the resources like cameras, vehicle etc. I was set for end April, and because I havnt been too focused on “me” now have postponed to end May, that is bad, very bad. In actual fact, just last Friday nite, after being in tears from frustration and let down by someone who wanted to join me (my sister) my daughter sat down with me and gave me a good talking. She basically told me to do exactly what you are doing, forget about who’s and whats and get my sites etc finalised and plan to hit the road NOW, asap! … ALONE!! If i do need anyone/ anything it will all fall into place. (she said) My one fear over and above going it alone was that I’m in my 50′s, kept thinking that it was already too late for me. You have given me so much hope and inspiraton and made me so excited, who knows, if Istay as fired up as i am right now, this minute after reading about you I may hit the road end of April still. Going to bookmark your site, look at it every day. I have no intentions of coming “home’ (which i dont have) and will also be travelling in the direction the wind takes me. My dream is that while travelling I will come across the place / island (has to be tropical) that will win my heart over and there I will retire and settle down. I am from Cape Town, South Africa, my first travel plans are to do my own country, all around SA and Africa. After that get onto a yacht, do the islands, have to fullfil that dream, lastly do international countries.
Hi Judy: Very interesting story; appreciate you sharing it. I can certainly relate. After my first round-the-world trip in 2007, I returned to the U.S. and settled back in to a rather boring life, traveling in the U.S. only. Even though I was a well-seasoned traveler, little-by-little I lost some of my confidence. I knew I needed to get back on the road full time, but it took me 2.5 years to make the plunge again. These days I come back to the States once or twice a year for a month or two each year, but I spend most of my time traveling, so there’s not enough downtime to get “stuck” like that again. One thing I can assure you of, once you’ve been out on the road for a week or two, it becomes the new norm and any fear you might have felt when you set out will gradually drain away. People the world over are basically good and, having been a traveler all my life, I can honestly say that I am treated better now at 60 than I ever was as a young woman. It’s absolutely NEVER too late – just do it!
Hi Barbara! I am Claribel Toro-Hernandez from Puerto Rico and yesterday I posted this picture of you in my pesonal page as I was reading your blog (which I love) and it was a sensation! Everybody thought it was me traveling around somewhere in the world! Later I looked at other pictures of you and in them you don´t look so similar but believe me this one was amazingly similar to me!
I have a public page in Facebook, Bufete Toro & Toro because I am an attorney in Puerto Rico and I also have a personal page in FB under my name.
I wish I can do the same as you, my daughters are all adults by now and I am single and free!
My job keeps me down at my office since it is pretty expensive to travel and to tell you the truth I am afraid to travel solo. Any suggestions how to start it all?
Wish you happy travels and hope I can do the same pretty soon!
Claribel
Hola Claribel. He visto su Pagina de Facebook y te acuerdo – hay una photo que me parece muy smilar a mi, excepto eres mucho mas joven! Vivi en Puerto Rico por un ano en 1996, en Rincon. Me gusta mucho Puerto Rico, pero ne he regresado por muchos anos. Gracias por su comentario, y disculpe mi Espanol! Necesito practicar mucho mas.
Hi Barbara,
I am from Nepal presently working in India. Today just by google find your blogsite with wonderful pictures of Nepal mostly from westernNepal Pokhara and like to share some of my feelings with you. I think you have spent a quite quality time in Nepal and hope you betterstand the innocentness of Nepalese people. I also belongs to nearby Pokhara village called Ghyampesal of Gorkha District.
Regarding peace and happiness any people searching it in entire life never ends. You are getting it thru travelling all over the world. Great and wonderful.
Here I would like to share with you my personal experiences how it difficult to people like us to visit not the world just your country (USA)? visa problem. If you not given the visa then how it possible to travel? forget peace and happiness. You know the story is my parents who are presently with me are the age of 65 -70. I have my elder brother and a younger sister both of them are in NY. My parents desperately wants to see their grandchildren from my brother and sister in NY before they die I hope the peace and happiness for them is this. For which I try to manage their trip to NY but visa got denial from US Embassy, Nepal. Now tell me how one can expect their peace and happiness if they not allowed for travel.
Anyway, goodluck for your world tour and thanks for beautiful coverage about Nepal in your blog.
Hi there to every body, it’s my first pay a visit of this website; this weblog consists of remarkable and in fact good material for readers.
Hi Barbara ,I like your way that you divert your life in the different way .you are one of the lucky person cause u knew your weakness that kept you sad.iam suffering like in your first stage .i couldn’t decide myself what am I going to do?sometime I fell like to start hitting the road and some time I fell too early to do that cause I m 30 yrs old now I do have wife,family specially my grandmother who is already over 100 yrs old now ,all are aspecting something from me and in the other hand they are waiting to see filled up hole of donut .i don’t know what to do Barbara .whatever i plan there are lots of barrier like physical,environmental,financil and so on..anyway whatever u doing keep going on that and try to keep more happy yourself.i was so happy to read your article .good luck…
Thank you Samman, for your comments and good wishes, and I’m glad if my story could bring you a bit of hope. Just focus on the positive and stay entirely present and you will see what path you are supposed to take. All the best.