* Life Updates, Intentional Living, Other Travels

Attention Fellow Travelers

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Many of you may or may not know that Michelle and I have been blogging about our travels in more detail on another blog called Intentionaltravelers.com. The original intent for Intentional Travelers was to document our travels, but mostly to help others learn about the joys and benefits of travel from the failures and little victories of our own experiences. Through this experience we realized there was a need and a tiny hole in the travel market for information for travelers like ourselves – those that want a more meaningful and transformational experience through authentic cross-cultural exchange.

Long story short, we are planning to start our own travel business that focuses on providing resources, training, and opportunities for those that want to do more intentional, meaningful, and transformational travel. Here’s where you come in. We are doing some research to figure out if a need for this kind of travel information exists. Do you love to travel or wish you could travel more? If so, would you mind filling out this quick survey for us by clicking on the picture or link below? Or, if you know someone that this description fits, could you share the link below?

Thanks! J&M

Intentional Travelers

http://intentionaltravelers.com/survey/

* Jedd Thoughts, Intentional Living

The Thief of Joy

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Taking a break from Facebook and Linkedin
I think I need to take a break from Facebook and LinkedIn.

I have a problem. The other day I found myself spending a couple hours browsing through friends and acquaintances’ FB timelines and Linkedin profiles.

Someone had a baby. Another person is traveling somewhere awesome. They are eating something that looks really good. He got a promotion. She’s doing something cool. They are hanging out with each other.

Seems all standard stuff right?

For the most part, social media is a pretty handy tool. It helps us stay somewhat connected and aware of what others are doing. But what happens when we start to look at other peoples’ lives and start to compare them to our own?

Therein lies my problem.

I’m sure this is an issue many of us face. It just so happens that I am Continue reading “The Thief of Joy” →

* Jedd Thoughts, * Life Updates, Intentional Living

Never Too Old

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Wendell and Blanche Cake

After living in Hawaii for over 40+ years my parents said goodbye yesterday and moved to Japan.

What’s amazing about this story is that if you knew my parents, you would know that this is a big deal. When most people at their age are trying to enjoy retirement, my parents packed their suitcases (let’s be fair: they shipped a bunch of their things ahead of time), said goodbye to their family, friends, and well-established lives and headed out for a new adventure.

Wendell and Blanche
Mom & Dad

My parents are what you would call “experienced,” honored citizens. They don’t move as fast as they used to and have both admitted that traveling is difficult. A lot of times when I ask my Dad how he’s doing, he replies in his deep, low voice, “I’m tired.”

They have always been that quiet, simple couple that enjoyed watching television and movies together at home rather than going out. I was extremely happy when they flew to Oregon for Michelle and I’s wedding and again to Omaha Nebraska for my brother’s college graduation. But that was over 6 years ago. If you asked them if they enjoyed traveling, they would tell you that they are still trying to recover from the last trip.

So why would they make such a huge life change?

It all started with a Continue reading “Never Too Old” →

* Jedd Thoughts, * Life Updates, Intentional Living

A Fast Update

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This post is brought to you by our ultimate cinnamon roll recipe.

You might be thinking, “Wait a minute, aren’t you doing some sort of fast?”

I am (you can read about it here).

One of the most important parts of the fast is Continue reading “A Fast Update” →

* Life Updates

The Latest From J + M

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In case you didn’t see the latest update on our travel blog, we have a few pieces of recent news to share:

  • A Worthy Peace Corps Partnership ProjectPhoto credit: Dreamspace CollectiveOur friend, Jordan, a Peace Corps Volunteer who is now serving in our same host community in Jamaica, is raising funds for a project at the community center where Jedd used to work. They plan to create a community garden and demonstration plot that will serve low-income neighborhoods. Learn more and donate here to support this sustainability project!
  • Where To NextOahu
    We’ll be traveling again soon! Our next adventures include Oahu, Vietnam, and Japan – our first time West of Hawaii – and we’re getting all our flights by travel hacking. The main reason for this extended trip (2-3 months) is to help Jedd’s parents make a big move from Hawaii to Japan! As many of you know, we take our freelance work with us on our laptops wherever we go and we’ve got a number of projects going on, so we expect to have our days pretty full this Spring.
  • A New Business VentureScreen Shot 2015-01-23 at 8.03.46 AM
    We’re in the process of forming a travel coordination/consultant business for meaningful, transformational travel. We’re operating under the umbrella of our generous mentor’s travel agency, Travel Team Brokers. Hopefully we’ll have something more solid to share soon, but in the meantime, we’re testing the waters of helping people book travel and starting a network of other travel professionals who are involved in intentional, transformational trips. If you need help booking a vacation of any kind, let us know. You can also help us get connected to people you know in the travel industry who might align with our mission.

Photo Credit (pictures 1 and 3): Ben and Connie of Dreamspace Collective

* Jedd Thoughts, * Life Updates, Intentional Living

Let’s Go Fast

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Fasting
Fried potato. Garlic mayo sauce. Cheddar cheese powder. Definitely not part of the fast.

Imagine if today you challenged yourself to completely change your routine regarding food. Today was going to be a start of a 30-day period where you only ate certain things and limited how much you ate. No more sweets or desserts. No alcohol or soda. Nothing fried or processed. No meat. No dairy.

Would you do this challenge intentionally? Why would someone do this intentionally? Could you do it? Continue reading “Let’s Go Fast” →

* Life Updates, * Michelle Thoughts, Intentional Living

Why We’ve Given Up Vacations | Intentional Travelers

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This post was written by Michelle for our travel blog – Intentional Travelers

It talks about the misconception some have about our recent travels, seeing them as vacations. In reality, travel has become part of work and more importantly, part of our day-to-day lives.


For the past two weeks, we’ve been in Honolulu, Hawaii visiting Jedd’s family. A couple times throughout this trip, people have referred to our stay as a “vacation.” The same thing happened on our three-week visit to Jamaica last month.

But, actually, these are not vacations for us!

We can see why people might be confused: Hawaii and Continue reading “Why We’ve Given Up Vacations | Intentional Travelers” →

* Life Updates, Other Travels, Videos

2014: Year In Review Video

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2014 was another eventful year, and we are so thankful for all the people and places we encountered! As usual, we’ve put together a short video of clips from our adventures. You’ll see footage from Peace Corps Jamaica, some road trips and National Parks, France and Switzerland, and more. We hope you enjoy!

* Jedd Thoughts, * Life Updates, * Michelle Thoughts

Annual Review Exercise 2014

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Happy Holidays!

We can’t believe it’s the end of 2014. Starting last year, we decided to do an exercise called the Annual Review which was inspired by unconventional blogger and author Chris Guillebeau (who founded the World Domination Summit).  It’s an intentional (cough cough) opportunity to take sometime time out to reflect on the past year. If you’ve done one before, it’s also an awesome opportunity to see if you’ve accomplished the goals you had from the previous year. Finally, it’s a chance to start planning and thinking about the next year.

Here’s what we came up with for our annual review, 2014: Continue reading “Annual Review Exercise 2014” →

* Jedd Thoughts, * Life Updates, Other Travels

Homes for the Holidays – Part 1: Jamaica

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Christmas in Jamaica
Do you see Michelle? Christmas decorations at our host family’s house.

As digital nomads, our concept of home is constantly evolving. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, it’s hard for us to answer where “home” exactly is. It seemed only fitting, then, that as we returned to Jamaica, our friends here said “Welcome home” to us, additionally adding: “Will Jamaica be home?” We made sure to answer them directly. “No. But we do love Jamaica.” Continue reading “Homes for the Holidays – Part 1: Jamaica” →