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A Long Way from Home

My mom loved looking at Becky’s iPad.  That’s because whenever Becky visited she showed her pictures of animals in Africa.

I believe that we are given a chance to share the world with each other.  Some of us travel just a few miles away from home, yet can share the stories of our farms, the ball diamonds where the kids play, the creeks where the bull frogs croak and the tall grasses up on the hill and you can close you eyes and imagine yourself there.  You know the old timer that takes you on a trip back to 1954 and the race track where his daddy first took him to the races.  You can smell the tires and the gas as the cars run the track, just in the way he tells the story.  You remember Aunt Ruth laughing so hard she cried as she told the tale of the visiting preacher when he came to visit and her toddler tinkled on his shoes – and she had never even left her living room.

Or you read the travel blogs online of people like Jody Halsted who lives and breathes Ireland Travel.  Then there’s Sheila Scarborough – good Lord, this woman is the energizer bunny of travel blogging and writes Sheila’s Guide to the Good Stuff, for starters.  Both of these women are consummate story tellers and you’ll want to see the world with them.

You too have a story to tell, whether it’s the one in your own back yard – or about a trip across the world.  Whatever it is, please share the world with us.  We want to hear what you see.

Stories are powerful things, and I know that as Becky travels she still shares her pictures of Africa with me now.  Mom’s no longer here, but I sit on my front porch and look on my phone (Becky texts them to my now) and pretend that mom sits next to me and sees them too.  If I never sit foot in Africa, I’ll still know that I’ve been there.  Because Becky took me there.

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