Keeping an open mind is the key to having a global network!

I decided in 2013 to become a minimalist purge my life of those things I don’t need or no longer use. To keep only what I need, in the amounts that I need and to let go of the rest. I felt an urge to become untethered, free to wander the world. I had no idea how that would manifest itself or show up in my life and when it did, it did so in a powerful life changing way!

I grew up in a small town, Avon Indiana, I went to a small town school, and stayed in Indiana. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever considered that I would travel the world and connect to some of the most amazing people in it. Never did I dream that I would live on the other side of the world.

I have learned to see the US from a global perspective, to see other people in the world from that same perspective. I have learned to not judge others by US standards, to be open to new experiences, to be tolerant and patient of things I do not understand until I do. I learned the value of creating a Global Network and making my world smaller and friendlier.

This year’s first blog of the Smallbox Thinkkit Blogging Challenge is about the global network of people I have created over the years who have opened up the world to me in amazing ways. The people whom I have relationships with, who I know, like, and trust, a small sampling of the people who help to make this a small and exciting world.

These are just a few of the photos, a small drop in the very global bucket, of the people who make up a very rich network of friends. In honor of all my friends in the US and around the world I post a few of the photos from 2013.

Hong Kong, Kenya, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, French, England, Germany, Austria, Samoa, and the US all come together in these photos to create a small world for a small town girl. A community of people, and now friends I know I can call on when I need them.

If I could have one wish it would be that every person develop his or her own global network, and have their eyes opened up to this wonderful world of people!