Here’s a paraphrase of a quote I read recently: Talking about your dreams will help you realize your dreams. Hmmm…I had to think on that one for a moment. You can take that from the perspective of “the Secret” in that you have to put things out in the Universe for them to happen. Or from the perspective of people, in general, like to help and the more people that know what you want, the more they will help you get there. Either way, I do see value in this idea. I’m a realtively private person, but maybe I need to give it a shot. Like most people, my dreams are wide and varied and cover many areas of my life. But it is safe to say that there is always a travel dream developing in my head. And what better place to formally state my travel dreams for 2012 than here on my blog? I often talk to close friends about my general ideas, but let’s get specific here.

Next year I have the dream of taking a leave of absence from my job for about 6 months starting in April. First stop will be Istanbul for two weeks before heading to Beirut where I’ll spend the bulk of my time. I truly loved my two week trip there back in June 2010 and have been plotting ever since to get back. I’ll have about 2 ½ months in Lebanon to study Arabic (that ought to be enough to get me to fluent, right??), find a volunteer project, take a side trip to Jordan, train Capoeira with the locals and eat platefuls of delicious Lebanese food before heading directly to Portland, Oregon. Why Portland? To attend the second World Domination Summit put on by blogger extraordinaire, Chris Guillebeau (for more on that conference see this post). This year’s summit lit a fire under me to follow my dreams and allowed me to meet an incredibly interesting cross section of folks who I would not have met otherwise.

From Portland, I’ll spend a few weeks back at home base in Los Angeles (hopefully just missing the annual June gloom) to regroup, re-fuel and re-pack before heading off to Europe. At the insistence of some persuasive friends (you know who you are), I’ll visit Austria, then do a multi day hike in the Swiss Alps and finally make it to London for the second half of the 2012 Summer Olympics (Pam, did you save that corner on your living room floor for me??). That takes me to mid August and unless better options present themselves I’ll head back to LA to begin to work on “what’s next” while putting in some serious training time at the Capoeira Brasil – Los Angeles academy, catching up with friends and making my rounds of familiar places. I have to say that after August 2012, I have no idea what I’ll do…and I think I kind of like that uncertainty. If I’ve been allowed to take a leave of absence from work, I could return to my current job. Or I may have found a new career passion while on the road or I may just keep going and end up with travel plans for the second half of the year. That happens quite often with serious (serial?) travelers.

Ah – it feels good and a bit vulnerable to put that out there in print. As I reread what I’ve written, I worry that it sounds a little farfetched, a little selfish, a little “out there”. But it also just…might…happen! My dream is already starting to sound like a plan…which is one step closer to reality. But how do I take it to the next step and make it a reality? How will I pay for this? Who will watch my apartment? Who will feed Chloe? What will I do for health insurance? So it’s out there now – let’s see where the dream will take me. Stay tuned – updates to come in future posts.