Travel

Inspired & Home from New York (Pics)

It’s been three days since my return from an eye-opening weekend in New York. The memories continue to replay in my mind…the chemistry I felt with the city, with the women who surrounded me, the impact of the stories and knowledge shared by each speaker, and the guards let down and tears shed by various women of the audience at Rich Happy & Hot LIVE.

My second day back home, I shed some tears of my own as I spoke to a dear friend by phone and began to express my deep gratitude for our friendship and their continued unconditional love and support in my efforts to express The Convivial Woman and grow in the comfort of my writer’s skin. When someone believes in you and just loves you for all that you are and all that you’re not (yet), what a powerful force you can be in the world!

I love telling stories by way of the eye, and you’d better believe I snapped a good number of moments while in The Big Apple. So have yourself a look-see at my photojournalism skills! There will be plenty of time to share words, but for now, let this visit to Convivial Society be a visual experience to enjoy. Let me know if anything grabs you by the heart!

Click on the album to view and experience New York with me all over again:

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Rich Happy & Enough

Today I tested out a revolutionary idea…the idea that I am enough.

It all started with my desire to win a ticket to attend Marie Forleo’s Rich Happy & Hot LIVE. It’s a business and lifestyle event for women entrepreneurs being held at Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Center in New York City November 12 – 14th, 2010.

I checked out the information a couple weeks ago and thought, Uhh, heck yeah this is where I need to be! So I clicked for more details on registration and cost and was stopped in my tracks when I saw that it costs $1497 to attend! (my wallet’s hearing alarm sirens go off) It didn’t take me long to click out of that box…sadly!

I’d be willing to charge it to my credit card, but I’ve been a good girl lately by not spending frivolously, and this certainly wouldn’t be careless to spend on, because the way I see this is like education. I mean, how much did I spend in college on freaking calculus and I don’t use a damn thing of anything that I learned there. But I just can’t do it right now.

THEN, Marie sends me an email inviting me to come to New York for the weekend (more…)

   

The Seed is Planted

Tomorrow, my guest post for The Shed Project will appear on Bindu Wiles site, as well as here, so I thought it would be ideal to share this photo I snapped of one of my journal inscriptions in 2004- the year I made the decision to pursue a feeling of bliss and let myself go where my heart led me.

The piece I am sharing for The Shed Project will elaborate MUCH MORE and share the full story with you, but I simply wanted you to see where the seed was planted. The story on Bindu’s site is the full-fledged blossoming of what happened when I let myself go…

   

Cross of Changes


San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato

   

Firenze Rustica.

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I Will Return To You One day.

   

Tour The World. Then Recreate It.

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The First Gift

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On the way to San Miguel de Allende, my husband and I met a man named Bruce who lived in San Miguel with his wife, Jennifer and two-year-old son, Blaze. First of all, what a cool name for a kid! Second, the parents were even cooler.

There was an instant connection with Bruce and my hubby, so they exchanged numbers and we met up for breakfast a few days later. We were going to eat at Buena Vida Cafe across from Bellas Artes, but they were closed for construction, then headed to La Parroquia Cafe nextdoor to El Tecolote Bookstore and the same story, so we ended up at El Pegaso Restaurant and Bar located on Calle Correo.

I felt just as comfortable with Jennifer as Martin did with Bruce, so the conversation was on! Of course, Martin and I were so curious to hear about how this American couple with a nice, big American baby made the journey to this foreign colonial town to live life. The journey started with just the two of them wanting to visit San Miguel de Allende to learn Spanish and the bigger decision to make a life there was as simple as a moment when Bruce and Jennifer,(newlyweds then) were sitting on a bench at the Jardin, and Bruce turned to Jennifer to say, “Just get me here, ” and Jennifer replied, “Okay. ” It’s been three years since that fateful moment.

In between a few bites of my delicious breakfast of Chilaquiles Verdes, Bruce said something that stayed with me.
In discussing their life raising Blaze in San Miguel, he said, “This is our first gift to our son…dual citizenship in two countries, learning two languages, and being immersed in two cultures so opposite from another.” What a broader sense of the world he will start off with all thanks to a conscious choice his parents made for him.

Martin was able to see how happy they were living in his hometown and he said, “I’ll be honest with you two…I’m jealous,” and that’s when I lovingly interjected and said, “Don’t be jealous, join the club!”

I admire this couple’s courage to try something different, to step outside their comfort zone and give something so unfamiliar a shot.

There are so many choices on how we can live our lives; our kids have little say in the beginning stages of their lives, so considering the benefits they will reap from the conscious choices we make on a daily basis is undeniably courageous and admirable.

Choose wisely.

   

Think Global.

No boundaries. Imagine that.

   
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