I woke up in kind of a funk.  I watched the news and I instantly felt worse.  Everybody was pointing their finger at one another and they all needed to be right.

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, I had just come home after being out of the country for almost four months.  I had never felt better in my life, both in body and in spirit.  I had been following my heart and I had been on” purpose ” I had spent the entire past summer with people who were making our world a better place.  They were inspirational  and they all had one thing in common.  They were exactly where they wanted to be – in both body and soul.

Every now and I need to remind myself of the state of mind I was in after returning from that journey. I start thinking about all the ways that I can make a difference – even if it’s just a small act.  Its those small acts that

Maggie Doyne and Biscal, Kopila Valley Children's Home, Nepal

make big differences in people’s lives.

Robbin Moulds, a subject in our film said: “At 211 degrees water is hot.  At 212 it boils.  That’s a  one degree difference.  I say to people – what’s a one degree difference you can make?”

• 1.  Call someone you haven’t spoken to in a while.  You’ll make them feel good – I guarantee.  Don’t put it off – you may not get the chance again.
• 2.  Take someone else’s call.  Call waiting can be cruel sometimes and it makes it easy for people to avoid and ignore.  Would it be so horrible to have to listen to someone for a few minutes?  Ignoring someone is the worst thing you can possibly do.
• 3.  Say something nice to someone  that you don’t really care for.  Surely you can find something nice to say.
• 4.  Don’t always try to be right.  It’s a lonely path to be on.
• 5.  Help a child with their homework or teach them one of your passions.
• 6.  Read to someone – a child, an older person, someone who needs help with English.
• 7.  Pick up a piece of litter that someone else has discarded.
• 8. Write a note or a letter to someone.  I treasure every hand written note that I get in the mail these days.  They are rare meaningful gems.
• 9.  Don’t judge someone by how they look.  Get past the clothes and adornments – the hair – the size and have a chat with someone you normally wouldn’t talk to if you judged them by their “cover.”
• 10.  Make amends with someone you’ve had a falling out with. I try to patch things up if friendships get off track.  I treasure the relationships I have with people and I don’t take them for granted.

Live in the now and as Steve Jobs said:  Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

A year ago today Erin and I boarded a plane, bound for home on our final flight of our 99-day journey around the world.  Seems like that happened in another lifetime – so much has transpired since then.

The day before we headed home, we sat down with our friend Ethan G. Salwen, who interviewed us on camera.  We are grateful for that because we were able to capture our thoughts at the time – at the end of an amazing adventure.

We had just finished our last story in Carlos Keen, Argentina – a town about an hour outside of Buenos Aires.  It was a story about Camino Abierto, a farm, a home to adolescent boys who had nowhere to call home,  and a restaurant – all filled with love.  We only spent two days there but those two days came at just the right time giving us one last burst of energy to complete the project we had started over 3 months prior.

At the time, I didn’t realize that it was really just the beginning of this project in so many ways.  As Erin headed back to Chicago and settled back into her life, I immersed myself deeper into this project with hundreds of hours of footage that needed to be edited.  I managed to get through one of the toughest winters of my life that taxed every ounce of my spirit on the darkest days.  But after a round of crowd funding via Kickstarter and finding the perfect editor, Erik Freeland and many more months of post-production – we now have a film that we are proud of.

As I mailed out the “rewards” yesterday to all of our backers that supported our project, I realized once again that this project is still not yet complete.  There are film festivals to submit to and community screenings to line up and plans to make different “cuts” at various lengths for different markets.  One idea is to break up the stories for the potential of a broadcast series. I actually went out to LA this past winter and “pitched” the idea to some industry folks and a couple of people were quite interested.  I even made a new version of the trailer and renamed the show.  We shall see if anything develops along those lines.

I have been richly rewarded in so many ways on this journey. Getting to really know my daughter has been perhaps the biggest reward.  But some of the kind comments that I have received from people who have seen the film have confirmed in my mind that this quest was meant to be. I’ll be sharing some of these comments with you in the coming months, on this blog that I have neglected as I’ve been off the radar working behind the scenes.

Here’s a tidbit from our Buenos Aires Interview on the final day of our journey.  I will share more soon.  This project was meant to be shared – that is the only way to manifest the true power behind this thing that we put into motion so long ago.

I have been thinking about how this project has taken on many different stages over the past year – and how every part of this “journey” has been so uniquely different, yet so focused toward the same vision. An idea that came to me one day when I was with a friend in a museum, blossomed into an eternal and deep bond with my daughter, an enormous amount of personal and creative growth and a film that has the ability to cause a “shift” – and make our world a better place.

It has been the “journey of a lifetime” but it’s not over.  In some ways, it’s just the beginning, at least in terms of it being a film. Lately,  I have been entering it into film festivals and that comes with yet another learning curve and some  strategic thinking. To be eligible for the Sundance competition for instance, the film must make its “world premiere” there – it cannot have been publicly screened prior to the Sundance festival.  It can have had private screenings for invited guests – but nothing that is open to the public in order to be considered for the competition.  That means that if we submit the film to other festivals and it’s lucky enough to get in – it would be ineligible for the Sundance competition, unless the other festival was after January. But, I will continue to submit the film to various festivals and what is meant to happen – will happen.

I’ve also been working on a press kit, which entails everything from a “tagline”, to a various length synopses to a “one sheet” or movie poster.  I’ve had to flip my brain into a different type of creative mode to assemble this kit.  I needed to start looking at this project through the eyes of the public.  That’s tough to do with something that I am so intimate with on so many levels.  I knew I needed outside help, especially when it came to creating a movie poster.

In what seems like another lifetime, I am a contributing “stock” still photographer to various agencies that license my work. This week, there was a discussion on a listserv amongst some of the photographers of one agency, about compositing and 3D.  I put out a query to see if anyone was interested in “collaborating on a movie poster for a worthwhile project that had a meager budget” and within 5 minutes I received a phone call from a guy who is one of the best digital artists I’ve seen.  He had known about our project and wanted to be part of it!  I can’t even begin to describe how blessed I feel – once again.

As this journey morphs from one stage to the next, I try to follow what seems to be the natural pace and rhythm of where it needs to go.  There have been highs and lows along the way and more to come I’m sure, but the seed of this idea that was planted long ago has just begun to grow.

P.S.  Almost forgot.  To all my “backers” – “rewards” will go out next week – finally!

I’m anxiously waiting to see a rough cut from my editor Erik Freeland of Springhouse Films. Maybe “anxious” isn’t the right word because it kind of implies that I’m nervous when I’ve not at all. Erik and I have had conversations that confirm in my mind I picked the best editor for this film. It’s the little things he’s said – the comments he’s made about sound bites etc. that affirm in my mind that he understands the story to be told.

I’ve also been kicking around different titles – other than Opening Our Eyes. I’ve contemplated changing the title to the Power of One but I’ve decided against it.

Getting a "little help from our friends".

The reason is, even though each and every one of my subjects is an extraordinary individual, they would all tell you that they aren’t alone in their efforts. Every one has support in some form or another. They could be financial supporters, staff people on their foundations, volunteers, or family and friends that are always there for them.

I know I could never have done this without the support and encouragement of others. When I first thought of this undertaking, I thought I would do it solo. It never would have occurred to me to involve my daughter because she had left the nest, taken up roots in another city and started her own life. Now looking back, I know that I could not have done this without her. And of course, I could have never pulled this off without all the back support from my husband.

I have been blessed to be in a position to work with a great editor. I have been blessed to have incredible friends who have helped me with their feedback on the trailer, the music I chose, the still images I’ve selected and how I phrase things in my written correspondence. A true collaboration of spirits. This past week, I’ve been particularly blessed by the help of two very good friends. I won’t give you the details just yet – because I don’t want to jinx what we’ve been working on. I have grown so much with the help of these special people because I’ve opened my mind up to their suggestions. They may critique my approach at times, but they know they can do that without offending – because I’m eager to learn.

Most of all, I’m grateful to all of you and all my “backers”. Just knowing that there were people out there following our journey and cheering us on – gave us the strength to carry on. You all are the best and I thank you for sticking with us. If we’ve been quiet on the blogging site – it’s because we’ve been really busy taking this to the next step and that is getting this film “out there”. That’s when the magic will really happen and I want all of you to know – it could have never happened without you.

In the words of Marian Kramer “We’ve got to shine each other up.”

Last Wednesday I spent the day with Maggie Doyne, a family friend, neighbor and subject of our film Opening Our Eyes. We spent the afternoon looking at hours of footage that we shot when we visited Maggie and her children in Nepal last summer.

It was a wonderful afternoon,

Gail and Maggie in Mendham,NJ

we talked, we looked at the footage that I hadn’t seen in awhile and we had a nice simple lunch. Being with Maggie is like getting a shot of goodness and it brought back a lot of nice memories of the journey that Erin and I took last summer.

It’s hard to believe that next month it will be a year since we left on our global journey. There are days that the trip is so fresh in my mind and others when it seems like a distant memory. I am still so hands on with the project – editing but for Erin it must seem like it happened in another lifetime.

Maggie said something that really rang true. As she watched the interview and other footage that we shot of her at the Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School she remarked how far she and all the people at Kopila Children’s Home had come since then. When we were there shooting, the school was still under construction even though classes had already begun. And the new kitchen hadn’t been finished yet either. Now both are completed and used on a daily basis.

I thought about how I had been feeling this past winter as I spent 14 hours a day, every day in the editing room for two months solid and I couldn’t see an end in sight to this film becoming a reality. But now it’s in the hands of a great editor with a due date to be completed late next month. When we started our journey almost a year ago, I never imagined that I would still be so entrenched with this project a year later. But then I look back from where I came and I can see how far I’ve come. I needed to be reminded to look back every now and then and observe from that perspective.

Thanks Maggie once again for your inspiration.