One of my absolute favorite hobbies is waking up before dawn, in a foreign city, with nothing to do all day but eat and explore.
A tiny espresso in an outdoor cafe. A man in a black hat playing violin to the pigeons. Cobblestones under my feet. Cathedrals where people crawl on their knees to the altar. Street vendors with blood oranges, who smile and give a sample. Neighbors hanging laundry from the balcony. Food I've never tasted, on a menu written in a language I don't speak.
Yes please. Allez.
I am a world traveler.
Fifty-three countries and five continents to date.
When I was 13, I flew International for the first time with a youth group, to spend 3 weeks in Russia. In hindsight that was a bold choice in the late 80s, as the USSR was a bit wobbly then — a trip to Odessa was even scrapped for security reasons.
President Ronald Reagan took some interest in that little trip though, and invited us to meet him on the tarmac at SeaTac next to Air Force One. Can you imagine such a thing now? Ha. More than just my bangs have changed.
Why Travel Matters at Midlife
Perimenopause and estrogen decline rewire nearly every system in the female body, but the neurological ones are arguably most important. Consider it a brain remodel.
Which is why women in midlife, with zero fx left to give, muse out loud about burning down their lives and moving to Iceland.
The impulse is real, but it's not practical. There's a better way.
Make a plan to get your sweet buns on a bus, train or plane and wake up in a different city with nothing to do all day but explore it.
This is Istanbul.
Travel does several things.
- It smashes the calcifications that imprison you in a life you've outgrown and wakes you up with exotic sights, smells and questions you've never considered. Doors of possiblity crack open. People are different than you thought they were.
- It demonstrates variations on a life well lived. "Wow, people here have long lunches, with friends and colleagues, over a bottle of Chablis on a Tuesday. Wait, can you do that? Can I do that?"
- It challenges the perceived centrality of your own culture. Things we cherish as Americans, ways we understand the world, don't even make sense inside the walled gardens of a 13th century Moorish palace in the South of Spain.
- It challenges your priorities. Do you really want to spend the time you do at Target, in traffic, or doomscrolling at home alone? Traveling invites you to challenge the boredom in your bones, and the loneliness that lives there too.
- The wide world delights us with beauty, novelty, pace and rhythm, but we're not naive, it shocks us with desecrations too. Sometimes you dance like Julie Andrews in Sellanches, sometimes you evacuate at the Marseille train station after a bomb threat. Not everything delights.
This is why I built Firelight Adventures
Not to help women escape their lives, but to wake them up inside of them. To invite them into all sorts of interesting, but forgotten, possiblities.
These journeys are for women willing to step into the kind of discomfort travel demands — the kind that requires your brain and your courage. Firelight Adventures are designed to remind women in midlife that their lives are still unfolding.
You're not too late for anything.
Plus, I'm tired of seeing all of you on Zoom. I want to talk to you live, listen to you, hug your necks, and show you stuff I've seen that blows my mind still. Then, send you home a little bit changed, with a few more friends and lot more chutzpah.
This is Madagascar.
You can see the 2026 Firelight schedule here.
But heads up, the Taos Trip April 10-13th is already half full. Early Bird pricing ends at midnight Valentines Day. Click here for info on Taos. To hop on the interest lists for Chamonix France or Killarney Ireland, head over here.
If you’ve been wondering whether you’re the kind of woman who still gets to go, you are.
And here are a few more pics of Antigua, Guatemala and Cotonou, Benin, West Africa just for fun.
See you down the road, hopefully in Taos! Have a beautiful week.
xoErin
Responses