Someday, Little Children

Whenever I ask myself how I ended up with my endless idealism, I replay this gem from my childhood. Our generation was saturated by this kind of thing... Free to Be You and Me, The Electric Co. -- as kids I thought we would grow up in a peaceful world with unlimited growth. I still believe in that dream... it's just become a lot more personal and a heckuva lot harder to achieve!

Steve Jobs: Dreamchaser Emeritus

Kamots turned me on to the TED talks... inspiration from some of the greatest achievers in the world.

While I don't consider myself a Mac guy, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Steve Jobs and the crucial role he has played in reinventing our relationships with technology.

But it's not fundamentally about technology at all -- which is what you'll discover by clicking here.

(See, Ron? You've already upped the stakes!)

Kamots

Bryan asked me today if I would join him here on this blog, and when he explained its purpose, my answer was a resounding yes. I haven't personally kept a blog for over five years now, and I've never participated in a group blog, but this one speaks to my heart, and if it does nothing more than facilitate the shared ramblings of two dreamers half a continent apart, then it's already a successful endeavor.

Before I contribute a post of any consequence, I want to explain Kamots. I use the name for my avatar or display name in most online social circles, and am frequently asked about its meaning. A rare few already know, but for those who don't, and because when I read a blog I personally like knowing a bit about who's behind the words I'm reading, I will use this first post to preemptively address the question that I know from experience will arise: Who or what is a Kamots?

The short answer is that Kamots was a wolf who spent several years as the alpha male of what is known as the Sawtooth Pack. Go to the Wolf Education Research Center if you want to know more.

The long answer is that as long as I can remember, I have loved wolves. They are beautiful, fierce, loyal, loving creatures. They have taught me more about life than most people. Wolves are misunderstood by most of humanity, and most of the time I feel the same. They possess an inner strength that I strive for, strong and independent, yet relying on each other to face the challenges of life. The family bond in the wolf pack is one of the strongest found in nature. They don't always agree, they will challenge one another to the point of drawing blood, but no matter what the role they choose or are assigned, they never, never forsake their pack. Such devotion is rare among animals, and the fickleness of human bonds pales by comparison. I choose the name for my avatars and display names to honor a creature that lives and loves and plays and dies with an intensity of spirit that inspires me to life.

So, who am I really? Obviously I am not a wolf. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, then I must have been one in a very recent past life, but for this lifetime at least, I'm passing my time in the body of a human male. I am a software engineer by trade, but my heart lies with writing, with the power of imagination and myth to change the world. It seems an odd combination, analytical versus artistic, two different sides of the brain, two vastly different aspects of personality, but I find that they can mesh like the sides of a coin to form a whole. I spent a good deal of my early life enamored with things that go beep, but I've learned that in the end, the mark I leave on this world and the mark it leaves on me have nothing to do with the things that beep and flash, and everything to do with the ones that laugh and cry. Lying upon death's door I will not find myself wishing I'd had time to level up just once more, I'll wish I'd hugged my children more, that I'd visited my grandpa before he died, that I'd broken the decade-long silence with my sister. The size of my house and the speed of my computer will count for nothing, but the lives intermingled with my own will count for everything. So, yes, I might be a left-brained analytical geek by nature, but I have learned that all we really have is each other, and writing is my means of reaching out.

Sadly, I find that being openly philosophical and thinking deeply turns most people off. I think deeply because I know my time is limited, so why should I let it go to waste? I value the gift of my life and the only impact I can have are the choices I make. Should those choices then be made lightly? Maybe sometimes, yes, but most of the time they're worth considering for a while. So I consider my choices in life as if it were the only life I had---oh wait, it is!---but the philosophy of life that I embrace is actually not to take it all too seriously. I believe the people who are able to make the most of life are the people who never forget what it's like to be a child. As children we find the world an incredible place, full of wonder, waiting to be explored, filled with the hope of what it might offer to us. Somewhere along the way to becoming an adult, most people seem to lose that. Most, but not all. It's the people who didn't that I'm looking for. The people who still chase dreams . . .

The Dream Team Expands!

I have taken some time off to reassess my goals and directions for this blog. I feel I'm in a quandary, not wanting to blow a bunch of hot air into the universe, telling people to believe in their dreams when I am failing at pursuing my own.

This is a huge year of transition for me. I know that whatever happens, things will NOT stay the same. Either I will fail at my big ambitions or I will succeed, but half measures will no longer suffice. From now on, it's live by my values or die by them. But I will not enter the afterworld only to end up in Dante's realm set aside for the Neutrals -- those who couldn't make up their mind one way or another... who went through life fearing to fail and thus to never take a stand.

Happily, I realize I'm not the only one facing tough choices. We all want happy and fulfilled lives... lives that are in congruence with out deepest values.

To my great joy, I rediscovered that my best friend shares these core beliefs, as you will get to see for yourself since he's now a valued member to the Dream Team. Once he gets around to accepting my invitation, he'll be posting to the blog about similar ideas (except he's a whole lot smarter than me).

None of us knows for sure what tomorrow will bring. But what we do know is what our values are and if the lives we are living are consistent with them. As Dreamchasers, we understand that congruent lives are satisfied lives... you can figure out the inverse for yourself.

So welcome aboard, Ron, and thanks for classing the joint up! It's great having you aboard. I look forward to watching our first public collaboration unfold, and hope it's the beginning of many, many more to come.

You know what you've got to do, right? When that moment of inspiration comes, I want you to rear back and BRING IT! Hopefully we'll be running stride for stride, even if in different directions. I know you're going to challenge me to reach levels beyond my wildest imagination.

Let's get this party started!

Show Don't Tell

'Nuff said.


Rush - Show Don't Tell
Uploaded by UniversalMusicGroup

Kelly Slater Does Tahiti

If you're anywhere near an Imax theater, you may want to check out this new 3D surf experience.  If nothing else, it will bring Tahiti up close like you've never seen it before (yet).  Or, if you have seen it, ah -- the memories.

Perusing Dream Pursuit

Great article in which the Olympics cause a writer to question what it would take to focus exclusively on one goal like elite athletes do.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

The 2010 Winter Olympics are almost over, and as the competitions wind down I'm feeling some mixed emotions. As an Olympic-watching junky, I will have a lot more time for work and will soon be able to get to bed at a decent hour. But I will miss the thrills and spills and the inspiring stories of redemption and triumph.
The Olympics, whether winter or summer, are all about having a dream and making a commitment to pursue a goal, despite all challenges. Most of the athletes at the winter games won't medal. Their dream is to simply be there; to represent their country and to do their best.
As I sit comfortably on my couch watching the games, enjoying my beverages and salty snacks, I try to imagine the dedication of these athletes, the commitment that has brought them to compete at this level. I feel like a total slacker.
I watch and I wonder: "What is my dream?" What do I want to accomplish that I would be willing to work that hard that long for? For what am I willing to sacrifice everything else in order to achieve? Honestly, I am hard pressed to come up with anything. That's not to say I don't have dreams, goals and things I hope to accomplish in my lifetime. But I've not yet come up with something that I would be willing to pursue with so much dedication and passion that it would exclude all else.

Adventure Is Out There

Who are my heroes?  When do I get jealous?  Reading or watching travel adventure stories drives me nuts.  I don't want to be watching.... I want to be out there!

But I know I need that kick, that inspiration to get me off my ass sometimes.  And when I do, there's no finer motivational tool than taking in the sheer glee of Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman on their motorcycle journeys.  Rat bastards!

Role Models

Sure, it's a funny movie if you happened to catch it.  But aside from being the societal prescriptive for what ails our youth, role models can be a powerful guide for the change we desire at any age.

Don't know where you're going?  Ask yourself whom you admire -- or envy.  If instead of wasting energy wishing you were them you would adapt the positive behaviors that got them where they are, you now have a roadmap to the life you want.

Role models blaze trails that you can follow if you'll put down the TV remote and the National Enquirer and get busy doing what they do -- instead of just wishing you were them.

This isn't some crackpot notion I just came up with.  NLP strategists have been teaching this method for personal change for years and years.  Junior executives have modeled the clothes they wear, the language they use, even their dietary choices based on the preferences of the CEOs they yearn to become replace someday.

If you don't know who your role models are, ask yourself when you feel jealousy that's beyond your conscious control.  "Man, I want a life like that."  Well why not go out and get it?  Your role model can show you the way.

We are all each other's teachers.  You just have to pick out the ones you want to become.  We're not in 3rd grade anymore.  We get to pick our own Mrs. Trout and Mr. Thomas.

So who's your role model?  And what did you do today to bring your life a little closer into alignment with theirs?

Diving In

The water in Tahiti looks absolutely spectacular...

A Prelude to Paradise

What's not to like?

Vision Over Visibility

For better or worse, we live in a monetary, material, concrete world.  Cash and carry, no C.O.D.s, thank you.  And so most of us plug away, doing the best we can to survive -- some of us even thrive.  But the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

It's hard to be a visionary if you don't have a vision.  But there are so very few true visionaries because what we can see and feel and taste and touch has presedence in our lives, and usually for very good reasons.  Mortgage payments, bills, insurance, working toward retirement, these are strong motivations that keep us stuck in what can feel like an endless treadmill.

A vision?  For all but a very few, that's a recipe for disaster.  Sure, geniuses see life in completely different ways... but what usually ends up happening to them?  Martyrs, paupers, crazies, heretics, losers most.  And then the other ones who create the art that we hang in museums, the novels we read in college, the innovators who start companies like Microsoft and Google, poets, prophets, investors, rebels.  All of them share a touch of the Mad Hatter, a belief in what they think and believe, even when it contradicts the herd.

Play it safe or go for broke?  Trust your instincts, or what has worked more often than not in the past?  See what's out there or stay at home where it's snug, safe and familiar?

We all get to make these decisions for ourselves.  The sad part is, nobody tells us the stakes involved until it's too late. 

Schools could provide the missing link, cultivating our individual talents, nurturing our latent abilities, encouraging us to become what we are capable of instead of what fits into the already established, neatly fitting grid.

At some point or other, most of us will want to discover what we were born for, what it is we might have been doing all along.  No matter where you are on the journey of life, there will be people who tell you there's no point in trying, that you'll only end up in disaster.  That the common way is the best way because most of the risks have been sqeezed out.

But if that vision remains locked away in your deepest soul, you will need to bring it out at some point while you still can.  It may be crazy; you may be a Noah out in his yard building an ark while the neighbors write you off as a looney.  The real question is: can you sleep at night if you don't get out there and start hammering?  Are you willing to face God after having doubted Him and the special mission He gave you while you were on this earth?

Then again, what do I know?  I'm just a guy who is fed up with placing my dreams on hold, in doubting the strong sense of mission that I feel inside. 

I have tried the safe routes and failed at every one.  Is it really such a risk now to do what I probably should have been working on all along?

Maybe this will all go smash.  But I'm putting myself out there and saying, okay, then, fine.  All the naysayers will be proven correct if that's the case.  I will have lost the bet.  All my deepest wishes for my life will have come to naught.

And yet, how different is that than if I never ventured them at all?  If they stayed locked in my heart where nobody could ever know about them?  Sure, I would have all these perfect fantasies stored away for a future "someday."  But that's like a child putting away his unopened Christmas presents so he can take them out 40 years later and sell them on ebay.  (And I know some of you are saying, smart kid!)

We all get to make those choices -- and I'm rolling up my sleeves and making mine.  My dreams will stay stored away no longer.  Failure is less a risk than dying with so much unlived life locked safely inside my heart.

Are You a Dreamchaser?

Are you motivated toward adventure or away from risk and danger?  (Note: There's nothing wrong with either answer.)  Often our choices will vary depending upon the circumstance.

If I'm surfing, I want to swim out toward the big waves.  But if sharks have been reported nearby, I may stay on shore until the coast is clear.

I may be attracted to adventurous activities like skydiving or secretly wish to obtain a pilot's license (and hope the two never come up simultaneously).  And yet I may sense a restless fear holding me back.  (Parachute jumping is an expensive indulgence we can't afford.  I hear about small aircraft crashing on the local news all the time.)


Neuro-lingsuistic programming teaches that each of us has a predominant compass that we tend to navigate by.  Being aware of your tendencies and those of the ones you love can be a useful tool for figuring out compatability in anything from vacation plans to career ambitions and raising kids.

One of you may be more concerned about playing it safe, saving for rainy days and sicknesses and a college fund.  Meanwhile, the other one wants to spend summer in France, to learn to scuba dive, the costs be damned.  It's easy to see why human society needs both types in order for it to function properly.

Which is why the division of labor is such a godsend.  I'm glad somebody likes repairing cars and is good at it, because outside of changing my own oil and some preventative maintenance, I'm virtually clueless.

I can think of a million jobs I'd never want in to try in as many years: mortician, tax attorney, ER doctor, slaughterhouse worker, politician... the list goes on and on.  Again, that's not because any of these are "bad" jobs; we all depend upon each other's skills for our nation to thrive.  I just hope that the people doing those careers enjoy them because I might survive at any of them if I had to, but I doubt I could thrive.

My brother works in the California prison system and I don't know how he does it.  He's a gang specialist and gets called at a moment's notice around the US whenever there's a riot.  He's tough, an ex-football player.  And still, I worry about him every day.  Yet when you ask him about it, he shrugs it off as no big deal.  He likes his job.  So there you go.

I love to teach, but don't love the educational system.  And yet  I meet people all the time who wonder how anybody could enjoy dealing with kids -- especially high school kids -- on a daily basis.

For my part, I ask myself how anybody can lead a pack of seven year olds for a whole day and not go utterly crazy.  But then again, elementrary teachers almost always adore what they do and wouldn't want to deal with the same kids as they get older.

So by asking whether or not you're a dreamchaser, the question is not judgmental in any way.  Rather, it's simply bidding you to search inside about what motivates you -- how strongly you are motivated to achieving your heart's desire before time runs out.

Where it matters most is if you're out of alignment.  That is, if you're really a dreamchaser down deep, but you've been living your life as a scared rabbit, hiding away those big, ambitious projects for a someday that seems like it will never come.  Tick tock, the days fly by... and those yearnings remain locked away in a closet, waiting for you to bring them out and fulfill them.

My meditation teacher used to say that we have to learn how to die like the Buddhist monks who meditate in a graveyard to remind themselves that time is short.  "Do not die with regrets," he would say.  "Make peace with your friends, with your family, with yourself.  Do it now, before it's too late."

Potential energy which remains unspent -- that's the real tragedy in death.  It's why we mourn so much for a kid who gets cut down by stray bullets or suicide or god only knows what else, but feel life has given someone a fair chance who fades away in their 80s.  Acknowledging, of course, that all death is ultimately sad to the loved ones left behind.

What's on your list of things to do before you die?  When did you plan on attacking that list?  Will it be a "bucket list" for you?  Are you waiting to win the lottery or be diagnosed with a terminal disease before you start?

Why not start today?  Right now?  With your very next breath?  Do you believe that's possible?

Are you a Dreamchaser?

The American Dream

When most of us think of the American Dream, I suspect that we imagine having made it big doing what we love.  The image of Drew Brees holding his child under a shower of confetti after the Super Bowl comes to my mind... It would be hard to come up with a better fairy tale ending.

But so many of us forget that the American Dream is about the quest as much as the attainment, that the doing what we love has far more impact on whether we're happy than the money, fame and status that we confuse it with.

It never fails that when a rock star or celebrity commits suicide, the rest of us wonder how it could have happened.  Like T.O., the flamboyant wide receiver for the 49ers Cowboys Eagles Bills, they have "millions of reasons to live for."  But aren't we confusing the pursuit with the attainment?  Is being a celebrity really what the American Dream is all about?

Reality TV would argue it is.  But everyday people who have found true happiness would not.

I believe that we won't achieve world peace until everyone is doing what they're meant to be doing, when their careers are extensions of who they are and what they love.

And yes, I believe with all my heart that each and every one of us is meant to do something special, something unique, something God put us here to achieve.

Call that outlandish, call that a theological fallacy, but I accept that as a base assumption.  And I'll even go as far as to say that I've never found the following statement not to be true: when people align their abilities with their ambitions -- when they are fulfilling their passionate purpose -- they are always, always, always happy in life.

Do what you love and the money will follow.  We hear it all the time, but do we truly believe it?

The Protestant work ethic says: hard work is our lot in life, whether we like it or not.  We serve God best through sacrifice.  If we like what we're doing too much, it isn't really work at all.  And neither is it sacrifice.  And therefore it can't possibly be good for you.

A dreamchaser believes that God meant us to be happy and fulfilled.  That we serve the Lord best when we're showing our gratitude by exploring and expanding the gifts we've been given.

Good parents want their children to become all they were born to be.  To use their talents and find true joy.

What mom or dad wants a child to suffer?  And which doesn't shout for joy when their son or daughter hits a home run or brings home an A in school?

The real secret is discovering what we were meant to do in life... the talent or ability we were born to develop and share with the world.

I'll have more to say about how education needs to be changed later.

For now, I want you to ask yourself: how am I unique from all other people who have ever been born on this earth?  When do I feel truly happy and at peace with myself?  What would I do anyway, even if I had 100 million dollars?  How would I spend my time?  How would I want to give back to the world?

The American Dream lives in the hearts and souls of each and every one of us.  It's not something waiting for us at the end of a rainbow, after we've won the lottery.

It burns brightly every time we engage in the activity we were meant to do.

The Countdown Begins

T minus 15 months... and counting.

That's how far out Robert and I now are from our stated launch date to Tahiti in May 2011 -- and so much needs to get done!  I can't even begin to detail the laundry list of tasks both big and small that must be taken care of to ensure we set sail.

If I dwell on the multitude of reasons why the venture ought not happen, it won't... and there wouldn't be much reason for writing this.  Call us fools (it happens a lot, we're used to it), but our plan is to procede "as if" everything necessary will happen in the alloted timeframe, no matter how niggling or challenging the obstacle may seem to us.  Call it a wing or a prayer.  We're not ignoring the challenges, just playing 'em one game at a time so the whole season ahead doesn't overwhelm us.

Part of my job during the coming days, weeks and months is to document the process as it unfolds.  Of course, should we fail in our purpose at any point along the way, this will all seem like a futile gesture leading to naught (besides heaps and heaps of public embarrassment).

But I'd rather risk that than stay safe and secure in harbor.  I've tried that method for too long now and can conclude with absolute certainty that it doesn't work -- it is a failed philosophy and must be discarded at once.

So far, only I, Bryan, have posted entries on this blog, but I'm hoping that Robert will soon join in.  He's the brains of this undertaking and the inspiration.  He's also a retired rocket scientist, and the butt of neverending brainy jokes that must get wearisome, as you'll soon find out.  When people say, "Yeah, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist," we in the family just smile.  We happen to have one of those creatures around and can speak from firsthand experience whereof that particular cliche comes.

Part of the attraction of our pairing for this trip is how similar yet dissimilar we are.  He's got all the science cred, plus a great appreciation for the art and culture that he was too busy making a career to have time for.  Whereas I'm the guy your mother warned you about, the one who insisted on studying German and the Great Books while he should have considered what he planned to do with all that fancy but impractical book learnin'.

If you've ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance (here I go), that's what most of our conversations tend to be like.  It's kind of a snoozefest for those not inclined to discussing matters of the head and heart -- many an acquaintance simply rolls their eyes whenever we bring subjects like these up --  but it joins us in a rather tight bond, purely by way of subtraction.  Without each other, who the hell would listen to us?

While it won't surprise us if you feel likewise, we're also hoping that a fairly substantial community of thoughtful people exists out there in the blogosphere who are tired of, as Neil Peart says, "so much style without substance, so much stuff without style."

I'll be quoting Neil a lot -- he and Henry David Thoreau and Paul Theroux -- for they are my travel heroes.  I personally -- and we collectively -- respect those who set off on epic quests for the sake of conquering them, but neither of us is inclined that way in the slightest.  In fact, it would drive us both crazy if either of us were.  Inner reflection is a non-negotiable in our world.

The inside and the outside need correlation, is another way of looking at it.  Otherwise, life boils down to so much stuff.  We are tremendous collectors, we humans, as a species.  Sometimes it appears that the only purpose of doing anything is so that we can show off our bobbles and pretty trinkets in front of others.  And to woo women, I suppose.  But that's not what this is about here -- at least in the theory behind the launching of this project.

Another favorite Peart line for me is this: "the way out is the way in..." which to me means that our outer lived experience doesn't add up to much unless it's connected to a Socratic questioning and awareness.  The unexamined life isn't worth living.  So what this won't be is a collection of mooseheads on the wall.

The Sierra Club motto reads: Take only photographs, leave only footprints.  And, to the best of our abilities, we shall adopt it as ours.

Mission Control

Have you created a mission statement?  It's absolutely the first step in achieving the life you've always dreamed of.  What is a mission statement and how do you come up with one?  That's a very good question!

Most people drift along in life, living where  they grew up, doing the job they "fell" into because an opportunity -- or necessity -- arose and sucked them in.  Maybe it's now ten, twenty years later and whatdoyouknow, the force of gravity hasn't let up.  You still find yourself in that same position, perhaps with a raise or two, but generally stuck in the same rut.  You feel life calling you to bigger and better things... you just don't know how to get yourself on the right track.

Having a mission statement is one of the ways you do it.  It's like having a thesis statement in writing: it alerts you and  everyone who knows you what you're all about, what your guiding principles are in life.  It provides the structural support, the rails, the undergirding to keep you in line and on track whatever direction you take, assuring that where you're headed is the direction you want to be traveling.

A true mission statement is derived from your core principles -- it's not something dashed out because you're told to or because it sounds snazzy.  It comes from your deepest and most closely-guarded values -- the things you cherish in your heart and believe in with all of your soul.

If you are wondering why you aren't a millionaire yet (or at least living some crazy lifestyle that sounds too good to be true), it could be that the philosophy you are living out isn't in line yet with what your true principles are.  You need a mission allignment.

Unless you're Warren Buffett, you probably didn't dream of being a millionaire when you were a child: you dreamed of  being a firefighter, a princess, a doctor, a rock god, a superstar athlete.  It was only later, when your material wants grew too big for your income, or your career frustrations started to drive you crazy that you saw money as the means to liberation.  But what you may have forgotten is that Warren Buffet and Bono got rich not doing things they hate, but by doing what they love most in the world.

Warren Buffett is the greatest investor because he adores it, not because he wanted a Gulfstream jet and needed the means to afford one.  If anybody could comfortably retire by now with every toy ever known to mankind, it would be him.  Yet he keeps going, adding 0s at the end of his income statement and laughing, because they ceased to be the measurement of success for him a long time ago, if indeed they ever were.

Sure, it matters whether we can pay off school loans, make our mortgage and put food on the table for our kids, but that doesn't necessarily mean by sacrificing what gives us a sense of fulfillment in our personal life, as if these goals were mutually exclusive.  That's a form of martyrdom -- and perhaps a necessary one where you live -- but it's not the only model out there to live by.

We can do all those things and not sacrifice what we were born for.  That's like saying we have to give up music and art classes and stick only with math because it's good for us.  The motto that says no pain, no gain has gotta go!

But maybe, just maybe, we've got the paradigm all wrong.  Maybe you start to afford life when you begin to do the things you love.  Can that be possible?  If it is, I sure want to find out.

And so, the mission statement.  I find it fitting that this get posted on Super Bowl Sunday, the biggest holiday in the world dedicated so watching teams of men living out their dreams, while we root them on.

But what's your dream?  What will you be doing that I and others like me will be rooting you on some day?

Here's my mission statement: I believe it is possible to sustain oneself financially by doing what you love and care about most in the world.  For me, that's motivating myself and others to go out there and get busy with their core passion!  Everything I've ever known or cared about most in life has related to this.  Leo Buscaglia said: you can't give away what you don't own yourself.  So I'm gettin' busy walking the walk, instead of talking the talk!

While I'm crazy about writing, and travel, and puppies, and rain, and, yes, football... and teaching... the quality they all share is that they come from the heart.  Their statements of my deepest beliefs: that life matters, that time is limited, that a world of adventure is calling and you better go out there and chase your dreams while you still can.

Doing that for a living... and helping others do it too -- that's my mission in life.  That's what I want every moment of every waking day dedicated to achieving.

This blog, and all that will be associated with it, that's where you get to share, to hopefully be inspired to set out after your own dreams, so we can root each other on towards becoming the best human beings that we are capable of being.

Dream on!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Dreamchasers!  You've found a blog dedicated to the passionate pursuit of individual dreams.  If you can dream it, you can achieve it!

In the following days, weeks and months, we'll be adding content relating to our first stated mission: to sail to Tahiti in the year 2011.

This, we hope, will be the first of many such endeavors stemming from our heartfelt dedication to the pursuit of fulfilling goals that are dream-driven and passion-inspired.

Looking forward, we hope this becomes the springboard to a whole lifetime of such adventures and an inspiration to others.  We plan to share our ups and downs, our high points and low points, and invite you to come along and join in!

As Bono would say, the goal is soul -- a life lived rooftop to the basement -- to the best of our abilities and with absolutely NO REGRETS!

Please feel free to lend your voices, share your own deepest yearnings, fondest wishes, snarky feedback, commentary, loopy asides [that means you, Julie], recommended books and music, questions, criticisms, etc etc.

One day at a time, lets chase our dreams and set sail for the horizon!

It's gonna be somethin' special.

- Bryan and Robert