Suzie's Review and Author Guest Post: Square Up by Lisa Dailey

Square Up: 50,000 miles in search of a way home by Lisa Dailey

Publisher:  Sidekick Press, (March 30, 2021)
Category: Memoir, Travel, Family Travel, Adventure Travel, Grief
Tour dates: January 17-February 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1734494556
Available in Print and ebook, 272 pages

 

Description Square Up by Lisa Dailey

Have you ever wished you could run away and leave your life behind? Born on the “Day of the Wanderer,” Lisa Dailey has always been filled with wanderlust. Although she and her husband had planned to take their family on a ’round-the-world adventure, she didn’t expect their plans to come together on the heels of grief, after losing seven family members in five years. 

Square Up shows us that travel not only helps us understand and appreciate other cultures, but invites us to find compassion and wisdom, heal from our losses, and discover our capacity for forgiveness, as well as joy.

Suzie's Review Square Up by Lisa Dailey

'Square Up: 50,000 Miles In Search of A Way Home,' by Lisa Dailey is not just a memoir, but a full blown, all senses engaged reading experience.

This is not only the story of a woman's emotional journey, and the depth of character that it took for her to overcome difficult circumstances, but an atmospheric travel memoir that takes the reader along for a trip with stops that range from Hawaii to Spain and many places in between. But let’s go back to where it all started, the year Lisa Dailey turned 35, tragedy struck in the form of her father dying. Several months later, her grandfather died and then only a few months after that, her 23-year-old brother died of an overdose. Things went on like this for five years, during which time Lisa lost seven family members, including her mother.

It seemed as though fate or destiny had taken out some kind of grudge against her. Though she was grateful for the continued health of her husband and two sons, the loss of so many close family members in rapid succession left her with not only grief, but PTSD in the form of anxiety about who she was going to lose next.

In order to relax and do something that they felt would close the book on this heartbreaking time in their lives, the family decided to take a globetrotting trip to several different beautiful and some not so beautiful, locations around the world.

Starting with Hawaii and going on to places like Okinawa and Vietnam, where her dentist husband had agreed to volunteer at a practice, Lisa recalls the events of this once in a lifetime vacation, and the ups and downs of working through your grief as you travel the world.

Lisa Dailey's writing reminds us that sometimes, all it takes it a different perspective to remind us of what we have to be thankful for. I am very thankful for her for showing her courage and sharing her story with the world.  I think we can all learn something from her.

Guest Post by Lisa Dailey

How travel can help one find joy

Travel has long been a priority in my life. Every year my husband and I choose a new destination we’d like to visit. After one vacation is over, we stash away a little money each month in preparation for the next adventure. And we plan ahead. While some of our destinations are exotic and far away like Bali, Indonesia, we also plan local trips like camping on the Oregon coast. And we plan WAY ahead—typically for an entire year. We have a night out with our calendars and we get ourselves organized.

In 2019, we had planned an early spring hiking in the Grand Canyon, an early summer trip to Valpariso, Chile, a summer camping trip to Oregon, a road trip to see relatives in Montana, and a quick weekend getaway to Nevada to see my sister and her family. But Covid-19 put all of our trips to an abrupt halt. With the rest of the world, we hunkered down, masked up, and cancelled our travel plans.

The first few months of our quarantine sailed by. Sure, we missed not traveling, but we started playing board games online over Zoom with friends, we read books that had been stacked on the bedside table for months, and we found joy in our new family schedule. But by fall, I noticed a growing gloom in my demeanor. I determined that I was missing was travel. There is something about exploring a new place and revisiting familiar haunts—essentially just getting away from everyday routine—that feeds my soul and renews my energy.

As soon as the vaccine was available to me, I jumped hoping that this would allow me to escape my everyday practices. Every time there was a little bit of good news with the virus, it was quickly dashed by a new variant. And so, I waited.

Then, in the summer of 2021, when things were looking pretty good, we planned a trip to Mexico. My husband and I flew to Puerto Vallarta where we had a biking food tour adventure, snorkeled, and saw humpback whales. We took a bus to Guadalajara, toured the town of Tequila, explored the Guachimontones ruins, and learned more about Mexican history. Then we were off to Lake Chalapa and Ajijic to gauge their suitability as somewhere we might like to live one day. Finally, we spent a week in Oaxaca learning about the art, food, and culture of the region and visiting the nearby ruins. For the first time in two years, we felt normal. Or at least as normal as one can feel masked up and being doused with hand sanitizer fever checked constantly. Nonetheless, we were free of the constraint of our own four walls. And my heart was light.

During our last few days, yet another variant was starting to spread around the world—Omicron. Suddenly, U.S. entry requirements were changed for negative Covid tests from 72 hours to 24 hours. We scrambled and made it home without incident on December 12.

I entered the 2021 holiday season with renewed energy and a lighter spirit. It was only then that I realized how important travel is in my life and what joy it brings to me.

The thrill of the unknown, trying to speak a different language, learning about new places, meeting new friends, and exploring the history of a foreign place feeds my soul. And I know I am not the only one. Thinking back on my trips over the years, I can remember the faces of fellow travelers who were equally enthralled with exploration and adventure. It’s as if we’re drawn together to share in the joy of travel, even if only in passing for a brief moment.

The trip in late 2021 was enough to carry me through for a while. We’ve already begun planning 2022, and, fingers crossed, we’ll be able to carry through on those plans both domestic and abroad, visit those who we’ve been apart from for more than two years, and share in the joy of connection once again. 

About Lisa Dailey

Lisa Dailey is an avid traveler and writer. In her time abroad, she unearthed new ways of looking at her life through her discoveries in remote corners of the world and she continues to enrich her life through travel. She is currently working on a recipe anthology as well as her first work of fiction. A native Montanan,

Lisa now makes her home by the ocean in Bellingham, Washington, but returns to her roots every summer for a healthy dose of mountains and Big Sky.

Lisa is the owner of Silent Sidekick and Sidekick Press where she helps guide authors through their publishing journey.

Author Website: https://lisa-dailey.com/
Travel Blog: https://northwestrambles.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nwrambles
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisadailey1724
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisad1724/  & https://www.instagram.com/nwrambles/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nwrambles/

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Giveaway Square Up by Lisa Dailey

This giveaway is for 3 print copies One for each of 3 winners. This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on February 12, 2022 midnight, pacific time.  Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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