The intrepid Rhea, who shares my inexplicable desire to chuck it all and go RV’ing for the rest of my life, is our host for this week’s Blogging Boomers Carnival. Check out her most recent post on The Boomer Chronicles, where she’s summarized the subjects being discussed by our little group of 12 boomers, and click through to read the complete articles of any that tickle your fancy.

Starting this week, I’ve joined the Blogging Boomers Carnival. I suspect this may need a little explaining. A blog carnival is a group of bloggers who share a common interest and band together to promote one another. In this case, the 14 of us are all baby boomers. Some of us write about midlife crises, others about family, still others about career transitions for boomers. The posts are sometimes touching, sometimes informative, and will often make you laugh out loud with their self-deprecating humor.

Each week, a different blogger hosts the carnival. The host writes an article containing brief summaries of posts that have recently appeared on member blogs, providing links back to the full stories.

Clear as mud?

Well, go check it out and it will make more sense. This week’s host is Ann at Contemporary Retirement. She has compiled a list of posts for your perusal. It’s a great way to find new and interesting reads.

Master Taisen Deshimaru said:

“To think is to choose to observe and comprehend, even if one is disturbed by oneself or others. Ultimately, to think means to understand, to understand primordial matter, the first thing in history.“

Master Ok-Sung An-Baron said:

“Between he who has conquered a hundred thousand men in battle and he who has conquered himself, it is the latter who is the greater victor.”

I originally read these quotes on two consecutive days. On its own, the first quote was thought provoking, but when I read the second quote Read the rest of this entry »

When I first started this blog, my tag line to the Hole In The Donut title was, “Who am I? Why am I Here? What Is My Purpose In Life?” That was at a point in my life when I decided to walk run away from a job I hated, strap on a backpack, and travel solo around the world for six months, searching for what would bring me joy. I learned what I had always known, that joy is an inside job. I learned that to find happiness, we must be true to ourselves. I learned that what is really important in life is not money or material things, but the love of family and friends. And I discovered the pleasure that comes from always being as kind as possible and helping others whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I can easily lose sight of all this. My ego wants to take back its old life whenever I am not present and mindful. Sometimes it is extremely difficult to stay in an attitude of loving kindness and unconditional acceptance. Recently I was put to a test of sorts, as I had occasion to be angry about an incident in my life. I reminded myself of a very important credo in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous: “It is a spiritual axiom that whenever we are angry or upset, there is something wrong with us.” This is not an easy thing to hear and it is even harder to accept, but I have found it to be quite true. The Big Book also tells us that anger is Read the rest of this entry »

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 Read the rest of this entry »

So many people have asked me how much my trip will cost that I thought I’d share a little known secret. Star Alliance is a program especially designed for round-the-world travel. It is an alliance of 18 airlines that includes United and USAirways. They sell a RTW ticket that is based on the number of miles you fly, with four levels of mileage, the highest allowable being 39,000 miles. There are a few basic rules to this program:

• You can travel for as little as ten days or as long a a year
• You must head generally in an eastward or westward direction during your travel
• You are allowed to travel in any direction within a continent – so you could go to Europe and stop in London, then go on to Germany, then backtrack to France – but once you leave the continent of Europe, you cannot come back to it and you must continue onward in your chosen direction
• Once you have visited a city you cannot return to it unless it is to travel through it to get to another destination
• You must cross both the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean
• At the end of your trip you must return to the same continent where you began your journey
• You total mileage must be 39,000 miles or less

The beauty of this program is that, once booked, you can change your days/dates/flight times as many times as you wish without penalty. You can even change your routing for a $100 fee. I think this program was originally designed to appeal to the younger folks – college kids doing “gap year” travel between graduation and going into the workplace – but it works for me. I’m sure you’re all asking the million dollar question – how much does this cost? The price of my ticket Read the rest of this entry »

I hardly know where to begin. I haven’t written much lately because I’ve been mired in travel planning – I’m up until the wee hours every night doing research and finalizing arrangements – there’s a lot to think about when you are leaving the country for six months. But yesterday I looked at my remaining list of things to do before I leave and I realized I’m going to make it. Almost all the crucial things are done – taxes, powers of attorney, setting up all my bills as drafts or activating online bill paying, etc. Now just the little stuff remains and I decided to take a breather. One of my new friends loaned me the movie “The Secret” so I decided to kick back in my recliner, make a big bowl of popcorn, and enjoy the movie.

This movie is all the rage right now. Oprah has featured it on her show and discussion about it on the Web is rampant. For me the film was just OK. It contained nothing I haven’t known for years. That’s not to say it’s not worth watching. It’s just that I found it to be a rehash of information that was previously examined on the film “What The Bleep Do We Know?“, which I found to be so much better than “The Secret.” The premise of “The Secret” is startling in its simplicity – that we create our reality with our thoughts and our intentions and that there is only one Universal law, the Law of Attraction. In other words, if we dwell on the negative things in our life we will attract more negativity into our lives.

I have always believed that that there are two clouds of energy out there in the ether – a dark, black cloud composed of fear, hate, judgment, envy, despair, sorrow (basically all the negative emotions) and a pure white cloud composed of love, joy, gratitude, willingness, honesty, peace, etc. (all the positive emotions). I believe that if you stay in a positive emotional state – and this is absolutely a choice on everyone’s part – you will draw positive energy to you, while if you dwell on negative emotions Read the rest of this entry »