Friends We Haven't Met Yet For Experiences We'll Never Forget

While I treasure the friendships that have stood the test of time, there’s something special about making new friends with those who have shared life-expanding experiences with the now-version of me. Folks we connect with because the same topics fascinate us. Or we’ve witnessed something incredible together that only those who were there can truly understand.

Every time I’ve traveled and had a genuinely moving experience…like hearing a lion’s guttural call to his pack-mates that reverberated in my chest like bass speakers…or watching and hearing the echoing crack of a mountain of a block of ice fall from a glacier that creates a spectacular splash…or sitting in ceremony with a circle of women who have transmuted horrors into loving compassion and forgiveness…each of these are branded on my heart and memory, along with the individuals who were there and know. Whose exchange of looking in each other’s eyes says all we need to say to each other because words aren’t enough or necessary. That moment of sharing the experience together that unites us no matter our differences.

My friend and author, Gail Larsen, calls these people “important strangers.” Folks we’ve never met before, but who will become important to us in some way. Whether that is a snapshot in time to experience what we need to experience together. Or a friendship that sparks into a lifetime bond.

In each of the moments I described above, I can see the faces and still remember the names of the important strangers who were there with me. And no matter the words I use, photographs I show, or how many times I've recounted the experience to others, it can't hold a flame to being there first-hand.

Isn’t everything worth seeing and experiencing made all the better when someone else is there, too? Even if it’s a brief, “Whoa! Did you see that!?”

Like the beauty of this awe-inspiring world needs to be shared and witnessed with another human. It reignites that childlike wonder of firsts. Couldn’t we all use some more of that in our lives right now?

There’s so much I love about retreats, and I think one of my favorites is the bonding that happens amongst attendees. A group coming together as strangers and leaving as friends.

Touching heiroglyphs that are thousands of years old

When I went to Egypt back in November, we traveled with family members who had been many times before. They were excited to share their love of Egypt with us, and to witness our seeing it all for the first time. They got to experience it again through our fresh eyes that re-ignited the awe.

And now I get to do the same in October with my Egyptian Activation Retreat. All the sites, temples, and mind-blowing engineering and magnitude I get to share with others. I will get to delight in their delight. To have them see it and turn to me to exchange that look of “WOW.”

Dancing on the Nile

To know that every person coming will meet up in Cairo as important strangers and leave from Aswan as friends. Friends who have shared a life-expanding experience together.

Who have danced on our boat sailing the Nile at sunset. Who have stood in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza and marveled at the size and impossibly accurate perfection. Who have touched hieroglyphs that are thousands of years old. Who have entered spaces that ancient kings and queens with all their treasures were laid to rest. Who floated in a hot air balloon at sunrise above archeological dig sites that are still excavating new tombs full of treasures.

This. This is what lights me up.

Does it light you up as well?

If so, come join us! There are only 3 rooms left!

Inside a tomb in Luxor. (Paint colors are all original and thousands of years old!)