Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!  One year ago – almost to the exact date – I was on a plane to Argentina for a Missions trip with my church. During the eight hour stretch from Miami to Santiago, Chile I got to know the woman I was sitting next to pretty well. We swapped stories and dreams, and discussed what we both could only describe as a “higher-calling” for our meeting. Now I am a frequent flier and never, ever, speak to the people around me. But this time, it was as if I was seated next to a good friend whom I’d known for some time. I was at a cross-road in my life – soul searching – and this woman gave me the encouragement and confidence I needed to have faith in taking leaps and trusting that all my actions and everyone I meet in life is for a reason. She, for example, was a total stranger picking me up when I was lost, while I was giving her the encouragement and faith she was seeking in her search to re-connect more strongly with the Catholic Church. (In our story swaps I told her about my desire to take this journey as a Catholic and learned that she had strayed from her Catholic upbringing and was finding her way back to the Church.) And literally we were both traveling to Argentina to, in many ways, find our way back to a closer connection to Catholicism! She was on her way to a baptism where she was going to be the godmother to a little girl (and here lies more irony in our meeting) named, Monica!

So, what does this story have to do with my first blog entry? Well, during our conversation she told me to start a blog. She wasn’t sure what it was that was compelling her to tell me this, but she said she was overcome by a feeling that I needed to blog. This has haunted me (in a good way) for many months. And several times I almost started one, but I could never decide what I would focus on. I felt it had to be something amazing, something truly big, to make her proud. And so, it has taken me, almost a full year to finally find my voice and start my blogging adventure.

Well, now you are probably wondering, ‘what is this amazing niche that I will focus on’?! I hope I don’t disappoint you when I say, ‘it’s a blog about me’. Plain and simple. My thoughts, adventures, passions, likes, and dislikes – my life through my eyes.  And while I hope this blog interests you and inspires creativity, joy, and contemplation in your own life; mostly I hope that, where-ever this woman is today, she knows I started this blog and thought of her “larger-calling” for my life. (The calling that guided her to encourage me to blog). And I hope – in-line with the conversation she and I had – that this blog will bring me to the next stage of my life, whatever that may be…