Have you ever had one of those moments, where you’re reading an article, a book, or suddenly see a visual and you ask yourself ‘out loud’ – “Why am I not doing this?”
I had one of those today, while I was reading a chapter from The Piano Tuner, a beautifully written told by a blind man, and how he became blind on the rough shores of northern Africa. A story of a piano turner, specializing in tuning rare French Eduar pianos is called to Africa on a “mission.” A rare mission. So many ducks and turns and twists and passions along the way.
Story after story, image after image – the coarse sands blowing against your face. It reminded me of a journey when I was hitchhiking in the Middle East, somewhere along the Lebanese border and ran into a German with long flowing hair, a warm creative face, a backsack a quarter the size of mine and a guitar. We hitched together for a few hours, until the sun set and we were forced to pitch our tents in the dark.
It was only the next morning that we realized we had made camp in the middle of a banana plantation along the beach – warm morning water was washing up against our tents, our faces, our hands, all of us, as if washing away the stress of the unknown, which was so part of our daily lives at the time.
We woke with the sun beating on our faces, our legs beneathe our sleeping bags submerged with water, salt water from the rolling morning waves. Soft but present. We were also intertwined with seaweed from the sea, as the rubbery wet texture wrapped around our arms and in his case, the head.
After a moment of panic, we laughed, looked around, pointed to a handful of sand crabs and latent large banana peels, and he said to me in his broken English, “I wonder if we’re in Lebanan or Israel.” We had no idea or cared. He took out his guitar and started to sing, and there we sat until late-afternoon until we embarked on yet another adventure, this time, sans a coast line.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
