Day 4, Part 1 of 2 Hiking in the Andes: Machu Picchu selfies & loss.

Friday, Day 4 of 4: We saw the sunrise at Machu Picchu today. As we were heading up, I thought of my brother Dino's beautiful life and, as I often do and have done on this trip, gave thanks for it. He had an incredible 22 year journey which I know he's simply continuing up in VIP…

We appreciate that Nolan keeps Uncle Dino's spirit alive by being himself; as comfortable in his own skin as Dean was: dancing on a whim, having a witty line for almost anything and making friends wherever he goes.

Which leads me to Nolan's idea for the trip: take selfies with as many llamas, alpacas, dogs, cats, cacti, horses, donkeys and sheep as he could. This is what inspired the posed selfie shot we took below.

Along with selfie'ing, this early Friday morning also brought gifting. Nolan gave our trek guide and friend Ozzi The Hobbit after having finished it. Ozzi was incredibly touched, as was I.

Today's gem: Teaching Nolan about "see you later" and how much love, life and truth there is in saying it. It made his separation from Ozzi much easier. We were happy to have answered a peaceful "No, honey" to the question "Do I *have* to say goodbye to Ozzi today??" They had become great friends. In fact, we've never heard Nolan be so conversant with anyone.

There's something…

…something about travel and being in nature for multiple days, nurtured by the Andes and Andean sun (when she decided to pop her head out) that connects you so fully with those around you. We all felt it in our own way and I know it filled our hearts (and lungs) right up.

To top it off, and because the world is generous if you believe her to be, we closed out the special day by connecting with Dino's dear, dear friend John Rupers for dinner in Cusco. What are the odds? Oh that's right: Wherever you are in the world is exactly where you're meant to be.

We laughed, spoke of him all throughout and toasted to his life. As John so beautifully stated, we remembered how our Dino Delight "never wasted energy." He loved and lived his 22 years with very little attention paid to the small stuff. Because so much of it is, indeed, small stuff…

Spend it loving, living, traveling, selfie'ing, gifting, smiling, connecting to what's true…for you, for those you love and even those you don't know you love…yet.

If you missed Day 3 and would like to read it, kindly click here.

I can't WAIT to share Day 4, Part 2 with you.

Until then, enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

Day 3 of 4 Hiking in the Andes: Why I cried (PHOTOS)

Day 3!

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Thursday, Day 3 of 4: Today it took about five hours to go from our last camp site at 12,500 feet to 10,000 feet. All the while, Ozzi would inspire us to laugh and sing ~ You Are My Sunshine, The Yellow Submarine and It's a Long Way to Tipperary (substituting Machu Picchu for Tipperary, of course) were just a few.

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Nolan repaid the favor by sharing many things he loves with Ozzi too. Say hello to Gollum's riddle. What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening? Answer: A man. He crawls as a baby. That same baby turns into a man and walks on two legs. Then, as an old man he walks using a cane.

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After our descent, I cried when Ozzi, our loving leader, told us that Modesto, one of our support staff friends was heading right back up the very mountain we had just come down to get back to his family. It had been so steep, not easy. It would take him eight to twelve hours at a good clip, maybe more, to get to where we started three days ago and all in sandals, while fighting the cold at night when he stopped to sleep before continuing. I knew, however, he would do it all with the same sweet smile he had woken up at 5am each morning to love us up with delicious food and tea.

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Before he left, he made us an anniversary cake. Nolan said Modesto's food was so delicious because "he cooked with passion." He cooked the cake in a pot over the fire and somehow even made tri-colored frosting. It was as delicious as seeing Nolan's huge smiles multiple times a day, regardless if it was really cold, really hot, really fun or really hard.

Today's gems: Modesto, Simon, Ozzi, four fast and furious donkeys (carrying our bags and equipment) and Pedro, the horse. Special mention goes to Nolan who, as he said to his Papa in his vows on Day 2, is both student and teacher.

If you missed Day 2 and would like to read it, kindly click here.

I can't WAIT to share the first part of Day 4 with you (this day was so good it had two parts. It's the day we had our Shaman-led renewal ceremony in a beautiful outdoor temple next to Machu Picchu).

Until then, enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

p.s. I’m an expert in an event hosted by my lovely friend Brenda called The Joyful Mama Revolution. My interview airs August 17th and as a Modern Adventurous Entrepreneurial Mom (as my writing coach, Jen Sincero, calls me), I'd LOVE to talk more about travel, family AND business with you there. Travel over!

Day 2 of 4 Hiking in the Andes (CHECK OUT my son’s VOWS!)

Day 2!

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Wednesday, Day 2 of 4: 'The present moment begins now' is all I kept hearing as my feet hit the rocky terrain. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to walk on. The elevation (lack of oxygen) has a similar effect, whether you're fit or not.

It's always an honor to be humbled by nature. Thank you, Andes.

We went from 11,500 feet to 14,000 feet. Seven hours-ish.

At the highest point, we did our own family vow renewal ceremony (the Shaman-led one was to come) to celebrate Josh's and my lucky number 13.

As seen here, we added some white to our hiking attire, all while the hot sun and cold rain competed to be our guests.

Part of what Nolan (9) vowed to Josh (46 :-):

"I promise to always love you with all my heart. I promise to be your greatest fan and accomplice in mischief. I promise to be your student and teacher…"

Josh didn't think we'd cry as much as we did. He was right. Tender and tall we stood, teeth chattering. Just like life, today was *the* sweetest and most physically demanding day.

Today's gems: Simply, the sweat and the sweet.

If you missed Day 1 and would like to read it, kindly click here.

I can't WAIT to share Day 3 with you.

Until then, enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

Behind the Scenes of my Trip to Peru: Day 1 of 4 (Portable Business’ing)

Probably like you do when you go away, when I travel, I get inspired. I'd say 90% of the time, the inspiration comes like this: I get the idea or spark to push on the gas pedal, to launch, to do, to create. It's worked great for me over the years. It's helped me to continue to step up for my clients in a rich way as well as for the movement I'm growing:

Feeling authentically free; the woman and mom movement!

The seven + trips I take a year both domestically and internationally, to me, gift or move me into true inspired action.

But this was different…

Recently, during my 2.5 week to the high and lowlands of Peru, I received something altogether different. I got "don't launch in late September, move it to January…take more time to heal from the loss of your brother and pour yourself into your writing and on getting your book out there."

I listened.

So, as a woman who listens to her intuition and gut (especially when she travels), that's exactly what I'm doing. As I posted on facebook today, "Your gut is one of the best coaches you'll ever not pay. Listen to her, especially when she whispers. She'll be easier to hear the more consistently you take her advice."

So…here's what I'm doing:

• I'm focusing on launching my book instead of launching my new Mom-focused program (but stay tuned as February will ring in one KICK BOOTY mom-focused business and life program!). Now, this is just it…listening to your gut or not pushing on the pedal in one area doesn't mean you can't "push it" in another. Monday I was on a plane to Jen Sincero, author of You Are a Badass, to work on the final touches of my book proposal. Twas awesome.

• And instead of sharing that new program with you as I probably would have been doing…I will, instead, be sharing with you five pieces (day 1, day 2, day 3 and two sharings for day 4) that I shared with friends on facebook. They are writings around four of the two+ weeks of my Peru trip. I will share one now below and the other four in separate emails so be on the lookout…

I hope you enjoy this first short and sweet sharing and that it inspires you to decide where in your business and life you could also be pushing down on the gas pedal in a different direction OR taking a yogi breath altogether so when you come back you're even stronger. And if we're not connected yet, here's my personal page where I would welcome you as my friend 🙂 I share similar musings every week: www.facebook.com/michelle.ghilotti.mandel:

Tuesday, Day 1 of 4: Remember what I said the other day about wanting 100 of those poetry books? I also want 100 Nolan "Man with the Locals and the Wild" Mandels.

Our four-day trek and camping adventure up Lares (the Andes) and through Machu Picchu began after buying these important leaves, some marbles, pens and notebooks for the Andean locals we met along the way. They were a huge hit, as were Nolan's green eyes and the fact that he spoke Spanish.

Climb today was 9,500 feet to 11,500 feet through some rain but thankfully we had our Dino ponchos.

Six miles, five'ish hours and much carbo-loading later, Nolan ended up only riding Pedro for a short part of the trek. The entire four days he was a champ. What a love.

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Today's gem: Hearing the native language spoken by the Incas. We were told there was not a bad word found in Quechua. The worst one possibly being (you're) "chubby."

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That which is endearing always makes you pause, smile and think.

I can't wait to share Day 2 with you.

Until then, enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

p.s. {INVITATION FOR MOMS OF THE MGI COMMUNITY} Transform work-life chaos into life-work bliss and join me in the Joyful Mama Revolution. My interview will air August sometime (stay tuned for the exact date). If you enjoyed the piece above then I'd love for you to join me on this juicy summit. I just recorded my interview yesterday and think you'll get a kick out of it not to mention a lot of great takeaways on branding your life AND business. Get the free deets here:

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