Dear Gentle Reader, Shonda Rhimes is my new best friend. She doesn't know it. Yet. I've also appointed myself Shondaland Ambassador to France. Seriously. 20 hours on the road with Audible & Shonda Yesterday I got home from a solo road trip to the south of France. 20-plus hours of driving flew by—because Audible and Shonda kept me company. A Year of Yes just celebrated its 10th anniversary with a new edition. She narrates it herself. Listen to it. Old Lessons, New Ears Many of the lessons that...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader. This Wasn't the Plan I was supposed to leave for a solo road trip across to the south of France on Sunday. Lyon, Menton for the Lemon Festival, Arles for the wild horses and flamingos of the Camargue. I'd been planning it for months. Sweaty palms and all. Then Monsieur Roger died. When I got the keys to my apartment in Beaugency back in 2019, I was alone and needed help getting things set up. The realtor introduced me to Roger Hucbezak—who became, to me, Monsieur Roger (muh-SYUH...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader. The last couple of weeks I've been writing about the guilt of self-care (Guilt of Self-Care) and the quiet forms of love that don't perform (Love Isn't Missing - It's Just Not Performing). Heavy, complicated stuff, I know, but... On My Valentine's Day I made coffee. Light and uncomplicated. I walked to the boulangerie. The weather was slightly less rainy and windy than the day before—which, in a French February, counts as a win. I bought a baguette, plus cuit. Said "merci" to the...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hey there. Last week at the weekly market here in Beaugency, I had maybe a 10-minute conversation with the woman who sells olives and cheese. She asked how I was settling in. She actually remembered. She asked and was truly interested in my response. I walked away feeling more seen than I did in years of past relationships - marriage or otherwise. Nobody counts that moment as meaningful or love. It won't show up on anyone's Instagram feed. There's no proof it happened. No proof it counts. But...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi, Reader. In case you hadn't notice, ( 😳 ) Valentine’s Day is coming. Which means the world not-so-subtly starts insisting that romance—ideally partnered—is the measure of whether we’re doing life correctly. If you’re not aligned with that story, it can start to feel personal. Like you’re the one who’s off. Where Self-Care Enters (and Slips) This is usually where self-care shows up. Not as something steady or relational—but as a consolation prize. Most of us aren’t against self-care. What...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi, Reader ! If the New Year energy has faded and you're wondering how you got off track so fast… you're not alone. I promise, I'm with you on this; I just got back to France after a month in Texas, and everything is still a blur. I am jet-lagged, physically spent, emotionally wrung out, and trying to get back to my life with a brain that hasn't caught up with the miles or the hours. The plan for January? LOL. 🤣 It didn’t happen. But here’s what I keep coming back to: I'm not starting over....
4 months ago • 1 min read
Clean Slates, Drift, and the Power of Coming Back... Happy New Year, Reader! There’s something uniquely satisfying about January. It's the collective pause and a fresh breeze of newness, the illusion of a clean slate and the permission to begin anew. Enjoy it! Let yourself exhale. Take the reset. But, next month, don’t forget—the calendar doesn’t have the power here. You do. You don’t need to wait for the 1st, or a Monday, or when everything settles down... to start again. The fresh start...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader This week’s Fireside Chat was poignant, so I wanted to share a bit of it with you here. The call wasn’t flashy or dramatic — but it was deeply honest, especially about this time of year and the quiet pressure so many of us still carry… even when we think we should be past it by now. A quiet kind of pressure The holidays have a way of amplifying expectations. Not just the visible ones — the gatherings, traditions, cheer — but the internal ones too. To feel grateful. To feel settled....
6 months ago • 1 min read
Hi, Reader, I’m writing this not to you, still blurry-eyed from driving fourteen hours round-trip to Alsace this week. The timing was terrible. The draft for the Wayfinding Road journal is due on the 9th. I leave on the 10th for a month in Texas. You can imagine my brain's input to this decision to take the trip... “Stay home and take care of business! Are you serious? What the hell are you thinking?" But I’ve wanted to see the Strasbourg Christmas market for years. My friend, Jacqueline,...
6 months ago • 1 min read