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Hometown

Virginia Beach, VA

Joie de VIVre

Travel (anywhere will do), sailing, painting, hiking, reading, writing, renovating houses, and hanging on the beach with my two children, ages 2 and 6.

VIV Moment

After 15 years in Southern California, I have just moved with my husband and two children to Virginia Beach, VA. New life, new schools, new friends, starting over again. Thinking of my VIV moment was no easy task as I’ve found that with any major move there are many moments of the past that flash through the mind’s eye. This one seems though, to resound on a different note than most:

At 30 years old, having said goodbye to my mother who had passed away from cancer, I took a four-day trip solo to Baja, Mexico and stayed in a small hotel outside of La Paz. Thanks to the advice of a local, I found an uninhabited, stretch of beach with the most unbelievably pristine lagoon. Each day I painted, read and wrote. This time, being alone, in a place of such raw beauty, had such an amazing, nurturing effect on me. It was as if the clock had stopped. It was purely cathartic. I realized that my life was not unlike the split second of my reflection on the water before the next wave took it away. It made me think of how one needs to cherish each and every opportunity presented, take risks and be true to one’s self.

Here in Virginia, during the days when mundane tasks and the general chaos of starting over with a family in tow feels overwhelming, I find that if I let my mind wander to the memory of that oasis I found in La Paz, it calms my soul.

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