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Question of the day…WHAT’S THE MOST PERFECT PLACE YOU’VE EVER BEEN? I wanted…

Mar 16, 2013

Question of the day…WHAT'S THE MOST PERFECT PLACE YOU'VE EVER BEEN?

I wanted to share with you all this article I recently wrote for Outside Magazine, just published this week. I hope it will fuel your own dreams for travel…and it also made me want to ask everyone to discuss the most perfect places in the world they've ever seen, whether near to home or far flung. So do tell! (I'll be taking notes, for my own future adventures!)

Have a beautiful weekend,
Liz


Don't Mess With Perfect
www.outsideonline.com
Elizabeth Gilbert says she’s never going back to Luang Prabang. Her memory of the place—and of one meal in particular—is too wonderful to risk a second glance.

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY… Hey everyone! I just got back from Canada, where I…

Mar 15, 2013

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY…

Hey everyone! I just got back from Canada, where I spoke at the Inspiring Leadership conference for women at the University of Regina. And man, did I come away inspired.

Here's a photo of me with a woman named Waneek Horn-Miller, who also spoke at the event. Waneek is a young Mohawk woman who grew up in every kind of poverty there is, except (thanks to her mother) a poverty of the spirit. When she was 14, Waneek was stabbed with a bayonet by a Canadian soldier during a stand-off on the reservation. She was trying to protect her little sister, and got in the way of the man with a bayonet. She was stabbed while her sister was in her arms. So she did protect her sister, but she was seriously wounded. (And may I just say — a BAYONET? In what century does this kind of thing occur? It's awful.)

She was already a promising athlete at the time, but the trauma of this event drove her to hide in her house, overcome by fear and panic. The story Waneek told us was of her mother coming into her bedroom at last and saying, "If you quit your life now, everyone in the world would understand. You've been through something unspeakably terrible. Nobody would blame you for staying hidden forever now. But if you do that, the soldier who attacked you owns your life. You will be his victim forever. And I didn't raise my daughters to be the victim of any man."

So Waneek came back into the world, after all. And exactly ten years later, she was competing in Sydney, Australia as the captain of the Canadian Olympic water polo team.

Today she's a fierce advocate for the rights of aboriginal people and the safety of women.

She blew my mind, is what I'm saying.

Here's an article about her, if you want to know more.

I'll never forget those words: "I didn't raise my daughters to be the victim of any man."

Onward, everyone.

Love, Liz

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall