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Wendy: “But Peter, how do we get to Neverland?”

Peter: “Fly, of course!”

- Peter Pan (You Can Fly, You Can Fly , You Can Fly)

I took a bit of time off from my website recently because my best friend, Dorothea, took her last journey out of this world after a brave battle with brain cancer.

And it got me to thinking. A lot.

Disney’s Peter Pan sang, “Think of the happiest things…it’s the same as having wings!” And so, I did. Turns out the happiest things were the fun times we had around the world! Natch. Love of travel and all it brings is why I started this web site in the first place. Dorothea was the one who taught me most about the gift of travel. She and her husband, Tom, took our family to Africa…a life-changing event. But many years before that trip to Tanzania she influenced me to stop giving “boxed gifts”.

You see, travel, which is the gift of time and of yourself, reigns supreme in the old gift-giving category. Every birthday and Xmas and Chanukah and whatever at our house involved a treasure hunt with clues and maps and all sorts of bells and whistles which led, inevitably, to a trip.

Perhaps it was a local ski trip, perhaps a sail in the Greek Isles, perhaps New Year’s in Paris and if it was a difficult year, perhaps a trip to our local Chinatown for dim sum and some local sightseeing. Didn’t matter – we were together and we were a world away from our everyday selves and lives in our own little ‘Neverland’. Happily ensconced in escapism and a bit of eternal childhood, we delighted in no distractions from phone calls, computers, mail, video games,

work, school…all those things that keep you from connecting and zeroing in on

your very own spirit and which also keep you from reaching out to those you love.

What a gift.

It took my breath away to see the Wildebeest migrating across the Serengeti and it filled my soul to see my son walking among the ruins in the Agora in Athens and it gave me pause when my stepson, Noah, announced that our trip to Paris actually meant something to him even though he was thirteen and had rolled his eyes through every corridor of the Louvre. Taking my mother to visit her birthplace in Shanghai was a gift to me as much as it was to her. ALL of these moments are mine for the rest of my life and the Mona Lisa is forever Noah’s and the Wildebeest will always and forever belong to me, our family and to Dorothea.

Because at the end of the day that’s all we’ve got: our own self and those in our orbit. Perhaps even better selves, because we went, we saw, we took “it” in…that ethereal ‘pixie dust’. When you travel, you bring “ it “ all home with you…what you’ve seen; the people you’ve met; and what you’ve learned and experienced along the way. You take it all home with you. After all, a souvenir is a ‘remembrance, a memory’ – not just a snow globe. No fire can burn the gift of travel, no hurricane can sweep it away. It can’t be stolen…no one can ever take it from you. The gift will be with you until the day you leave this earth for your final trip to Neverland.

I pass the torch you. Travel. Travel for travel’s sake. Give the gift of travel.