EpicJourney's Blog

Hi BraveHeart Women,

I've been posting onto Facebook regularly, every day new pics of our Journey. My name is Liis Marais on Facebook (South Africa), so if you're interested, ask to be my friend and we can connect more frequently.

We're finally getting into a rhythm, and I've also started the homeschooling process. We've travelled approx. 800km's to date, this being the 3rd week of our Journey. It's easier for me to upload pictures on my Facebook Wall, as my friends are also able to follow us and comment.

Love and honour to you all,
Liis

Facebook: Liis Marais - South Africa - Cape Town

Dealing with a to-do list can be both frightening and exhilerating.....!!!!! Learning to delegate is one of life's most gracious lessons. So here goes:

I am a request for support in the following areas:

1 - I will be putting out my own Newsletter to my friends, family and interested followers of our journey. To enable online friends to request the Newsletter, I need to copy and paste the code at the end of each blog entry, there needs to be an opt-in for their name and email address. How would I do it in this particular scenario of posting a new blog entry and having it appear at the bottom of the entry each time? Anyone able to assist me with this?

2 - When I see advertisements on the internet for building a free website within minutes..... what's the catch??? I do need a website, and am loathe to have a webmaster control it. I want to do it myself - ha-ha, does that sound familiar?

3 - I am looking for sponsorship. Not in terms of money, but in terms of "things" which will not cost a company much, but will assist me practically and would give them exposure through my website and weekly Newsletters. Does anyone have resources such as templates of letters which I can utilise to approach my local companies for sponsorship? A friend of mine happened across the path of a French couple with three children travelling through South Africa at the moment in a huge bus, with sponsorship advertising all over the outside of their bus. I realise it should be a win-win for both parties, myself and the sponsors.... I just don't know how to go about it. I'm not looking for a bus, I have a motorhome which is better suited to go into smaller roads, campsites and under trees. (A small RV in American terms.) My fundraiser has let me down, and keeps making promises over a period of months now, and I am choosing to ask for support advice here in the braveheartwomen's network.

Any feedback will be most valuable and appreciated.
Love and honour
Lisa

We're leaving in about 3 -4 weeks' time, and we will be saying goodbye to a wonderful supporting community of friends and people whom are even closer than family it often seems. Off course there's email, Skype, mobile phones etc. which is a blessing untold. Giving notice to my landlord and the children's school was purely a mechanical action, two items on my checklist that needed to be done timeously for good effect. Two weeks after doing so, it hit me for the first time (oh my gosh).... I was leaving my comfort zone - a safe space that had held my children and I for a while. A space in which I had grown, and every growth I embraced, I saw my children grow and step into their own power too. When I was prepared to take a risk, moving beyond my fears, they did the same in their emotional growth. The two concepts are inextricably linked. If parents grow, their children grow. So it seems in my experience.

So what is it about saying goodbye that is so painful and difficult? What identification with aspects of our lives hold us back from moving forward? Is it facing the unknown that has us holding on to the same routines, same environment, same friends, same job, same habits and patterns of behaviour that feels comfortable? Or those creature comforts we surround ourselves with on a daily basis? Why do we doubt our innate ability to be adjustable, flexible, spontaneous, adventurous and even versatile? Is fear the culprit, and giving in to it, that has us sabotage ourselves from stepping into our greatness and into the world where we can make a difference?

My friend Nix shared with me a view that those who are aware and present to our universe's spiritual signs, say right now we are experiencing the power of ending of the old, and the start of the new. This has a lot to do with saying goodbye. This points towards birth and rebirth, celebrating the death and demise of the "birthbag" which diligently supported the growth of exquisite new life, sacrificing itself while launching new creation into being..... Pain and joy side by side. How to feel the one AND the other at the same time, so as not to resist one in preference to the other?

Hasta la vista - goodbye. And Hasta pronto - see you soon or until soon.

This epic journey has already started. Everything constantly reminds me of that. Anyone else of logical (and sound) thinking mind would remind me that I've not left yet, that the vehicle is booked in for some alterations and fittings on 1st July, and only a week later will we be setting off on our journey. My checklist is not complete yet, so how has my journey already started?

Simply stated: our past is always sitting in our future. Every moment I live now is in the past the next minute. Therefore every thought and plan I have now slips into the past, which is where I am subconsciously creating (sowing) my future. When I live in the past, I "re-live" the past constantly, because I'm setting it into my future and therefore experience reaping the "patterns" of the same successes and mistakes over and over again.

Therefore I am learning the skill of creating my future and powerfully choosing my actions. I'm learning to live in the moment, learning to savour the present and give gratitude for every blessing. I'm learning to embrace the unknown and uncertainty is my friend. I'm learning to trust my intuition and I am inspiration in action.

Do I want "hum-ho" OR inspired adventure travel? I get to choose. I get to say Soon it's goodbye to the old and hello to the new......

This morning I was supposed to climb Table Mountain.

When the alarm woke me @ 6pm it was POURING with rain. I snoozed the alarm for 20 minutes and finally faced the now much colder bathwater..... mmmmhhmmm..... wish I'd got in when it was still hot. Wonder if we're still climbing, there's been no cancellation sms or emails.

I sent an sms @ 6:45 to enquire and yes, when I was halfway to Cape Town I got the cancellation SMS. Driving along I made a few stops and enquiries into aspects of our roadtrip, almost ONE month from now!!!

What I got out of it all, is how tempting it is to cancel on events, meetings, parties, PEOPLE, dates and so on, which is what I wanted to do laying snug under my feather down duvet. Then when I went through the motions of getting ready and leaving, I was committed to go do the WILD thing and climb that MOUNTAIN. And when the cancelled message came through I was RELIEVED because it was really cold and wet, but I was THANKFUL for being able to use the time differently. After all, I had an open block of morning to do whatever I wanted to. And from there I got to create a day that 's included writing and reading and being inspired by other brave heart women.

So being committed and having integrity to my WORD is vital and has my life WORK. Then when there's a change in PLAN beyond my control, it's WOOOPIE, let's go play, which is what being a child is all about. Such FREEDOM and GRATITUDE in the moment.

I will be talking about the mountain climb some more, another time, because it will have been postponed for another date, and I have LOADS to share about THAT.

HAVAGREATDAY GORGEOUS WOMAN!!!

I was sent a list of interview questions for my profile to be added to Spice4Life and this question jumped off the page. Before I knew it, I wrote this "poem" and would love to share it -

Of one thing I am sure....

Of one thing I am sure
My still inner Teacher, my godly Divine,
seeks cherished treasures and wisdoms hidden,
while journeys cross with ancient paths;

Uncertainty is the deafening rhythm
of friendship with the unknown
Like the deep intuitive passion
of lovers’ dance embrace;

Quiet is this storm which rages
around a fire horse from birth to beyond
Being light and warmth to blessed man who dares to drink
from the beauty of such gregarious spirit soul;

Born to fly and soar and edify creation
Birthed by Nature’s urgent call
Raised to be silent, I beat out loud my heart’s enduring drum.
Of one thing I am sure. I am sure. I am.

Lisa – 28 May 2009

I am both excited and scared. I'm calm about some things and nervous about others. The journey itself I'm not scared of, it's the fact that I've never homeschooled my children, so this is the unknown for me.

So much has happened since our first excited posts when our idea was first birthed. It was so exciting and yes, reality did step in and a few things have shifted, but the dream is alive and well and has translated into REALITY.

I've given notice where I live, I've given notice to the children's school (the required 3 month notice period), and it's all happening from beginning July.... when we're setting off.

Some of the changes:.

Inge is no longer joining us with her daughter Ellen, and they will both be missed as they are our precious friends and were very instrumental in the forming of the idea.
The vehicle we're using is a motorhome (smaller than the american RV).
It sleeps 3 people comfortably.
It has a kitchen, (small one) with gas oven and hob as well as a nicely sized fridge / freezer, a shower room with toilet and basin with hot and cold water heated with gas;
Some packing space, a DVD (and CD) player and small TV screen, and is basically everything we need on four wheels, to make this journey a possibility.
We may take a trailer to store additional toys like bicycles and J-boards and skateboard and surfboards and maybe even a scooter. Along with all that we need to take our gear, for camping, for schooling, for crafting, for eating etc. etc. (The list is long).

In order to have a trailer, I would need to have a tow-bar (hitch) installed, which is next on the list.

To sum up, the children are still excited and everyone we talk to and meet, are very encouraging and we've had so much positive feedback. Our database for our newsletter is growning daily and people really want to be kept in the know of where we are. I will have a livelink on the newsletter pointing to this blog.

For me it's a choiceless choice. It's a journey my children and I are going to do together, and we've done some practicing using our mobile motorhome, all of which has been a learning curve, and getting to know our vehicle.

The planning continues, and I am enjoying the process. The journey has already started, long before we've even left.

5 weeks to go.

The meeting with our professional fundraisor went very well on Thursday morning, very SOBERING as well as "OH MY GOODNESS.....!!!"

Inge and I are doing a lot of processing and we're also compiling our concept document (yes we got some crucial homework to do), and we'll be checking in with her in ten days' time. At one point in the conversation our fundraiser got goosebumps, yes, the real thing. She was THAT excited and inspired.

She also added that we had "ba11s of steel".... hmmmm, I trealise it's simply part of every woman's journey to discover, embrace and powerfully own them.

Loads of love
Lisa

Ellen (12) says:
"I'm very excited to go on this journey. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to GO!!. And I can't wait! I think the bus is going to be an amazing experience for our TWO whole families."

Jennah (8) says:
"I want to go NOW. I'm really excited and I can't wait to sleep on the top bunk with my friend Ellen."

Jordan (10) says:
"I can't wait, and I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. And I can't wait to go to Jeffreys Bay to surf."

Inge and I are meeting with a professional corporate fundraiser first thing tomorrow morning, and we will be psyched and upbeat on our next blog entry..... we don't KNOW that, at the same time we will know how viable getting the bus is. We're on tenterhooks!! And the children's excitement is infectious.

G'nite from Cape Town - SA

I am inspired by endless possibilities, powerfully choosing intentional living as the fertile soil and foundation from which I am constantly growing.

My good friend Inge and I are planning to travel South Africa as two single moms,with our children, Ellen aged 12, Jennah 8, and Jordan 10, "road-schooling" in an experiential way, while living in a converted luxury coach touring bus. Our epic journey will be journalled & blogged daily, and we will be in Skype connection with our "real" school's teachers (http://www.synergyschooling.co.za).

We are planning our epic journey to start June 2009 and will be checking in with other home-schoolers around the country. Making this opportunity available for various children & guardians to experience learning on the road with us too will make a difference and inspire children to be and do whatever they dream, and create an “I can” attitude in them, our future leaders.

I am honoured to be among women of greatness on this website, thank you Ellie Drake.