It started in Singapore. We went up the escalators, pushed our way through the crowds of people all making their way to the same place we were headed. But then we saw it. The National Geographic store. We had to go in.

An hour or so later, we emerged. Our inspiration tanks were full. And we knew even more clearly what we wanted out of this adventure called life.

There were pictures of places and people from all over the world. Sights and sounds to make one feel alive. Small wonders and massive awe-inspiring monuments. And books galore. I was captivated by one story of photojournalist who traveled with her children and her husband, also a photojournalist. Maybe that’s where the spark was lit. I knew I wanted something different for my children. For me. I didn’t want to just read about these places, I wanted to experience them. 

The wind blowing off the sea and bringing the salty tang of voyages past and present. The call of taxi drivers, each promising the best and most fair price for where ever you needed to go. The crisp sound of different accents, different only from my own. The flavors of food so strange to my palate but comforting and familiar to others.

The whisper of a dream, the call of an adventure, the promise of anything but ordinary. 

People ask their questions about when we’ll settle down and how ready I must be to have my very own house. They admire me from afar for being willing to follow my man across the country or across the world. And they say again that they don’t know how we do it.

The truth is, I don’t know how any of us do it. Each of us has something that drives us, that gives us purpose and a reason to wake up. Even that the reason is to find the purpose to live. We each have a whisper of a dream. And mine looks different from yours. It’s not a matter of me just following my husband and uprooting our little family yet again. We don’t see as uprooting, we see it as adventure. Home to us isn’t four walls and a door. Home is the four of us, all together and happy. And we can be together anywhere in the world. 

I have my struggles, my doubts, times when my courage lacks and the adventure seems just too adventurous. But the pursuit of the dream, the truth that we want to be doing this, and the truth that we make every decision together keeps me going through those rough patches. And the sun breaks through the clouds and I am buoyed up by knowing that this is exactly where I am supposed to be.

I think of others, each pursuing their dream, each embracing the adventure that their life is and I continue on. That’s how I do it. The challenges that I face in this lifestyle that we have chosen are no different then any other challenges that you face. It may look different at first blush, but we are all the same underneath. And that is why we need each other. To share life together, to buoy each other up, and to celebrate when battles are won.

That’s how I do it. That’s why I’m here, living in Nova Scotia pursuing a dream with my husband that everyone says is very hard but to us, its worth it. It may have started in that National Geographic store in Singapore but its continued with every dreamer we encounter, every hurdle we jump over and every day we wake up and get to be alive. 

What inspires you? Do you have the whisper of a dream of an adventure? And how do you do it each day?