Ron and I always loved travel and measured ourselves by the experiences we had, the people we met, the people we helped encourage and the people who encouraged us.    We broadened ourselves by increasing our respect for those who approached life differently than we.  We all try to make things better – not always with success, but mostly with good intentions.

Maya Angelou said “You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”

When you come upon age-old cities, you change.  Self-realization, I guess.  America is so young, and these cities have seen so much change in their thousand-year existences.

Czech this out (and pardon the pun. It was too good to pass up):  Prague, a city of castles,  museums, theatres, and galleries is the capital of the Czech Republic.  The Celts, Northern Europeans, Romans, House of Hapsburg all had their hand in forming this city.  Prague was wiped out a time or two by fire and flood, hit hard by revolutions, and hidden well behind Communism’s iron curtain for many years.  By the time the Hirn family saw Prague, it was a Republic, complete with all of those lovely Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance Baroque and Bohemian influences.

These wonderful European cities are home to and the birthplace of so many fairy tales and novels.  Yesterday on Facebook, I gave you my version of what happens at night on the Charles Bridge.  Talking statues?  It may be fiction.  It may not.  But we always encouraged our kids to look beyond the logical and develop their imagination.    Take a turn:   First step, organize a family trip and seek these cultural treasures for yourself.  Second step, put together the facts. Third step:  make up your own story.    Then imagine . . . .

How do you think J.K.Rowling got her start?

Dawn

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. Lewis Carroll. His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson but the writer called himself Lewis Carroll.  It didn’t really matter.  When he took his vision for his Alice of Wonderland-fame, through the looking glass, he had to start somewhere. But you know from the elaborate details of his story, there was a lot of day-dreaming and planning before the pen hit paper.  The point is, he started!

When people ask me how we were able to take the family world trip, immediately they see $$ signs and teams of people preparing the way for us.  But the team that planned, the team that saved, the team that studied health and safety issues, food safety and charted their way safely across the world,  was Team Hirn, who ran in conjunction with the US State Department/Travel.   Planning was intense – but so was the reward.

I know – sounds exhausting and you’d rather just take your family back to that tired old condo on the beach.  But unless you start to make a bigger plan, you and your family will never see the other side of the shore.

Don’t let fear stand in your way.  Yes, travel warnings have increased, but there are so many countries which welcome Americans, why would you choose to visit one that didn’t?  North Korea?  Angola?  Somalia? Iran?  Seriously?  There are so many wonderful places on earth, why on earth would you choose these?

Be like Lewis Carroll, whose story about Alice began in his imagination. See yourself in China, Japan, SE Asia and beyond. Then start making a plan – and commit to stick to it.  That’s is the first step to any success.

As Dolly Parton once said, “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving  another one.”

Dawn