Origins + Routes

This is the theme I keep coming back to, the stories of where I’m from and the paths I’ve travelled; the places I call home and the identities I’ve collected along the way; the personas I was and the person I’ve become. I have tried numerous times over the last decade to unify my interests, my professions, all the hats I wear into a tidy package. How to “brand” myself, how to distill the multiple facets of what I do and who I am, how to make myself and all my multitudes digestible for the external world.

I find myself unsure how to answer those most basic of small-talk questions: Where are you from? What do you do?

I am an artist, a jeweler, a painter, a writer, a translator, an interpreter, an organizer, a fundraiser, a producer, a marketer, a property manager, a historian, a baker, a chef, an entrepreneur, and of course a mother, daughter and wife. I’ve lived in New Mexico, rural Southern Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Austin (Texas), rural Mozambique near the border with Zimbabwe, Maputo, the Italy-Slovenia border region, the San Francisco Bay Area, and now West Palm Beach (Florida).

Many times I’ve thought the answer was to simplify, to consolidate, to reduce. But seemingly the more I try, the more I end up involved in new projects, traveling unexpected paths, following my gut and collecting hints about a larger story that is unfolding.

I believe all these experiences, professions, locations and identities are part of a greater whole that lies ahead but I’m not yet able to see clearly. I intuit parts of it - like I know this future thing will include languages, heritage, art, agriculture and travel. I also believe that documenting the process of figuring it all out, of building what is yet to exist, is a key part of what needs to happen right now.

So I’ve returned to blogging, to writing whenever I can about whatever wants to flow out of me. I’ve avoided this for so long out of a fear that what I have to say isn’t cohesive, or more simply from the block that comes when you have so much to say and don’t know where to start.

But it’s time. So here I am, writing from this in-between stage where I’m mostly focused on being a mom to Stasi, but at the same time each day I try to lay a grain down in the foundation of whatever is our next chapter. I hope you’ll join me for the adventures in construction.