What is With Heart Travel?

Traveling With Heart as a practice to connect and care for self, one another, and the sacred home we call earth. 

There are many ways to explore and many reasons to.

Heart-led journeys ask the traveler to check in with self. To honor the who, the where, the why, and the how.

I first conceived of With Heart Travel as the name for my business to emphasize bringing heart into the matter.  It is to capture what I know and experienced as a young child and throughout my life about how travel can shape a person, can bring new ways of thinking and of knowing, of discovery of oneself and of the world. 

The Practice of Travel

What is a practice? Something that is done in a conscious way to attend to the mind, body, spirit. 

Travel and travail. Come from the same root. In life we have challenges. Being human is not easy.  The emotions we hold. The thoughts we have. The all of it.

The challenges are crafted to teach. Intention.  What one focuses on grows. 

How to best prepare for travel?

Doubt your first impressions is a part of this With Heart practice.

What does that mean to you? Why is it important to do so?

Being open to new, letting go of expectation to be fully on the journey.

What is a With Heart Experience?

I call it a “giving exchange” vs “giving back”.  It can take many forms, whether as part of a pickleball trip or part of service-learning journey, or a women’s retreat.  Yet, all share the similar components.   Connection, fostering friendship, deepening understanding.

What might travel With Heart look like?

We might be sharing time with a family in Guatemala who is teaching about their coffee coop, as we go from the coffee plant to the cup; it might be scraping and painting a wall in a school in a local village in Nicaragua and then dancing together in the courtyard with the whole village; or it might be teaching pickleball at a resort, inviting Women In Sports to come to the courts to play and then share refreshments together. 

It is about connection.  It is about removing barriers, about sharing time and giving of oursleves. 

And it can occur I our own backyards.  Where in society do ethnic groups spend time?  Do brown skin and white skin tend to mix or separate?  Do we have ways to appreciate our differences and recognize our similarities?

There are many economic disparities, and especially in recent times when the words “diversity and inclusion” became fuel for political division.

Do we teach children how to share in the sandbox, or tell them to keep all their toys to themselves, not to include others in play? 

Nature only thrives is when there is diversity.  

The first pickleball group I ever led with a “with heart experience” was visiting a school in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.  The travelers who joined this outing were a bit unsure, not knowing what this would be like to leave the resort. 

It was not only a highlight of their trip, but also completely shifted their thinking, having met and interacted with students at the school who were friendly, kind and so animated in their eagerness to talk and share and engage.

The respect between people was palpable.  It was a way to appreciate one another’s value. 

This is way toward building the Beloved Community.