E2C_Travel
Not all travel is into the great unknown... some takes you 'home', to your people. I found my roots again after the pandemic with an aluminum love child named Bella and the 50 aunts and uncles who just can't seem to get enough of her. The Airstream community took me completely by surprise, but it's not the campers that create the connection -- it's the love of outdoors and nature, working hard to prepare an obscenely over-the-top family meal "just because", and genuine affinity for the stories that brought each of us here.
Any experience where you have an opportunity to learn the stories of others, try new foods, see how people live differently - each of those moments changes your life just a little. If you're lucky, your worldview becomes a patchwork of all those experiences. Mine has.
#mycuprunnethover
ABOUT ME
Part journal, part treasure map, part petri dish of thoughts about the future – this website is the synthesis of years of informal (and informed) study of the human condition… coupled with an unyielding need to explore every old tree trunk, breathe in as many back alley spice markets as I can find, admire the monarchs in every protected estuary along the coast, and climb the hillsides on gas-powered mules those few precious days the poppies raise their gorgeous orange faces to the sun. I'll do it all - every single mile - while my hands can still manage the camera.
The more time passes, the more I understand Thoreau's beloved Walden and his need to "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life." With Bella and an increasingly more amazing collection of people in my life... my physical footprint has been smaller these past few pandemic-impacted years, but my "heart-print" has never experienced more reach. To those who are with me, you are everything to me. To those who will join our treasure hunt, I promise we're going to see the world... and see it differently, #together.
E2C_Connection
So many amazing people come into my life and teach me unexpected things. They make my life fuller and more interesting in more ways than I imagined. These connections are what drive me - they’re my secret sauce, my signature strength. Every success in my life is, quite simply, based on my love of people and bringing people together to do wonderful things.
This summer I joined the Board of a publishing company that enables people to publish their personal stories online (here’s mine if you’re curious: Tonya's Cues & Views). Working with this commitment, I’m even more convinced of the importance of sharing our journey to connect with others. I see firsthand the difference connections make when people recognize how much we are alike… not different. With that as my goal, I look forward to sharing my journey and story - sharing my connections and creating new ones on the way. Exploring2Connect. Join me.#onwardandupward
I know, I know… it’s all about me. But, heck – that’s all there is right now. Me and the road… and my peeps who take succccccccch good care of me. I got up this morning, put on my yoga…
Plane landed around 2am. A few luggage challenges (don’t ask – all that matters is that I got home with ALL of it!), and I was to the hotel by 4am. I believe I have achieved some sort of ‘platinum…
So I’m a gold card Starbucks coffee club member. When you stop and get an iced coffee four or five times a week before yoga, it’s just easy to rack up points and get the benefits of their program (like…
I love shopping. More and more and more, I love shopping… but really truly only if you can actually afford to buy anything. The prices at the Hong Kong airport border on obscene. So – nice ‘looking’ during my 6hr…
Well, you know Dalian is closer in distance to North Korea than it is to Beijing… so it would be no surprise that we went to dinner on Friday night at a place that is known for Korean barbecue. The…
When I first started to put the Dalian site together, there was no team in China. Just me… me and Phoebe. Phoebe was the project manager assigned by the Dalian Software Park team to help us negotiate the task of…
One of my colleagues, Tracy, had been to Nashville a year or so ago and we spent a lot of time together then. She took me shopping on Wednesday night. I wasn’t good company – the jet lag had hit…
I arrived last night. Rod Stewart is playing in the lobby. Yes, in China. And it’s the ‘show tunes’ album he put out a few years back (so no ‘Maggie’ or ‘Gasoline Alley’). I will find over the course of…
For those of you who saw “Up and Away” – the George Clooney movie that earned him an Oscar nomination earlier this year – you know it’s a story of an HR corporate type trying to hit his ten million…
Leaving for Dalian now… then on to Bangalore. Can’t wait to see the teams; I have been away from my friends far too long. The other night in yoga (here @ home), I heard a buzzer/horn sound off in one…
