The Birth of GoPhilanthropic
There is always a silver lining during difficult times. The months following our decision to move back to the US were anything but easy. To begin with, we had to break the news to all of our dear friends. Some were shocked and horrified, others supportive and understanding. Those friends who were also living an ex-pat life showed a particular blend of sorrow that made us feeling remorseful for needing to leave. The winter was long and cold and filled with a myriad of details involving the move, selling the village house and planning for a new life in the States. Without knowing it, we were about to enter a very noir period where nothing would be clear and for the first time in many years we questioned every move we made.
We took a trip to the US in the winter to meet with Isabelle’s surgeons. While we had conducted extensive research on her condition and felt confident that amputation was the right thing for her future, reviewing the details with the doctors made it all too real. We also took the opportunity to look at houses to buy. With Isabelle’s fate weighing heavily on our minds, we attempted to follow our cheery real estate agent around houses that now seemed oddly thin with their dry walled rooms all painted white. We had become attached to stone, mortar and earth. Perhaps this transition was not going to be that easy after all. To top it off the week we were in the US happened to coincide with a severe snow storm, forcing serious delays at the airport, where our bags were riffled through and stripped of my computer and camera. I had meant to back up my writing but hadn’t done so. Months of lost journal entries on my precious Provence life were gone. Everything that was happening to me felt like such a loss and a horrible pumpkin-size ball of stress and pain lodged itself in my gut. It would be a full year before it would begin to ease.
One of the most difficult challenges facing our pending return to the US had to do with what we were going to do with ourselves…what would we do for work? Provence had somehow allowed us to have ambiguous job titles – villa managers, renovators, vine trimmers and goat cheese tasters and wild asparagus pickers …it was all wonderful but we knew we couldn’t continue like this once we were at our new/old home. It is one thing to live like this amongst farmers and aging vineyards in the South of France and quite another to do it in an environment where respect often comes from what one does for a living.
We considered going back to Executive Search—for about 2 split seconds. John thought of continuing in renovation and real estate, yet the economic news coming from the real estate market was abysmal. We agreed to continue running our Luxury Vacation Villa business, but this wasn’t a full-time job for either one of us. The wet cold weeks drew on and my mind emptied of ideas. Then it went virtually blank.
Sometimes it’s good to have a clean slate. Like taking all your clothes off-you can’t hide from yourself. What you are left with is simply you. I started thinking about all the things that make up who I am– the love of freedom, travel, foreign sites and sounds, nature, the wind in my face, building things, helping people. My mind wandered to all the dreams I had as a child, of traipsing around the world with a duffle bag, helping and volunteering. The Global Volunteer program in India had changed me. So too had our travels and living abroad. I couldn’t just go home and pretend to be the person I was before living all this.
Then John does what he does best – take thoughts and makes them into business ideas.
“What about helping people travel and give at the same time. Just think of all the guests that come here Lydia. They are all searching for something meaningful when they leave home, something that makes them stretch as individuals. Provence is a wonderful place to come to, but people are ready to go beyond in their travels…and so many talk about what a deep desire they have to give back to life. We could call it something like – GoPhilanthropic or with a Conscience…or something like that.” Then slowly, out of the darkness, ideas started pouring in, until the light was so strong it felt like a big bright flashing neon sign beaming into my brain. All of the stages of our lives had linked together in this one beautiful idea that was just simply right. Together we would forge the next chapter of our lives and suddenly there was no time to look back or for feeling loss.
Rochester, NY 2007
Our house in Alleins didn’t sell by the time we moved home, so to play it safe we held off buying and instead settled ourselves into a small rental house on an unpretentious street in an unpretentious neighborhood. It couldn’t have been more Main Street America and probably the furthest thing from what we had lived for the past bunch of years, yet it represented a safe and cozy nest from which to ease into a life that had become a strange but old friend. Nicholas and Emma lived a honeymoon of experiences they had dreamed of having; school taught in English and kids to play with on the same street. Isabelle had her operation and we healed beside her, praying for the days where she could stand upright on both feet and walk with the rest of us.
GoPhilanthropic has become our anchor in the transition. We wake each day to a project that offers endless opportunity for the good. We hold tightly to the idea that people are searching for deeper meaning in their lives so heavily influenced by consumption. Travel offers a wonderful avenue for opening oneself up and giving back. People are awakening, looking up from their flat screen TVs and out of their SUVs, with their eyes on a wide world around them—a world waiting to be discovered, full of differences and adventures. How can you do so without recognizing those who still fight for a drop of clean water and a book from which to learn? From there, one quickly jumps to the realization of just how fortunate we are, just how capable we are to offer others a portion of what was handed to us on a plate.
India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Costa Rica are regions that have moved us personally, so we have started there – planning itineraries to these awe-inspiring places, weaving in visits to various social and conservation projects, all focused on empowering and bettering the local community. These solution-oriented projects are unique to each region’s challenges and range from orphanages, schools and clean water projects, to environmental projects and micro-business financing. We find ourselves fully embracing the concepts of Responsible Travel and Sustainable Tourism, attempting only to partner with hotels and travel professionals committed to minimizing the negative affects of tourism on the environments and cultures that host the world’s most spectacular travel destinations. John dove into researching how best to offset the carbon emissions on all the trips and I researched well-run outreach projects in the regions. Traveling has quickly become part of our norm and one that keeps us connected to the world in which there is just so much to do.
Somehow I feel John and I have come full circle, back to the place where we met and fell in love, back to where our roots were and memories can be found on each corner, back to who we have always been.
So as Paolo Choelo said,
Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
I think back to those days sitting on my porch in Orlando when leaving the life we knew was merely a dream. I am forever grateful to whatever it was that gave me the strength to act on it. I suppose the biggest message I wish to pass on to my children is just that—Whatever it is that makes you tick inside, the things that tug and pull at your heart, the images you dream of as you close your eyes and drift off to sleep, should be kept upfront and center as you live your life. They shouldn’t be brushed aside. For these are life’s gifts to us, the things that make each one of us unique, and we will be at our best when we listen and let them lead the way.