What do you do when your best laid plans do not easily fit with the new plans that the French administration has laid out for you? You change your plans. This is exactly what happened to me last month when I finally received the invitation to my Republican Integration Contract…

I remember so vividly the messages from my parents and grandparents growing up. “You need to be able to do things for yourself. You need to learn to be independent, you don’t want to rely on anyone.” And while as helpful as this may be and I have gotten far…

As I turned my journal page there was a divider with this quote by Peter F. Drucker, “In every success story you will find someone who has made a courageous decision.” That quote really hit home for me since I have spent a lot of time thinking about courage lately.…

Last summer, I saw a short on Instagram, a place I rarely find myself and this short was from Lauren Saunders of Love & Dots (https://loveanddotsshop.com/), she was showing a beautiful mandala that she had painted and talked about how painting mandalas actually helped her find clarity and a new…

As I write this, it is the middle of February and my time in Perigueux has been wonderful even if the weather has tried to rain on my parade. The center of Perigueux is blocked off to cars so you can meander cobblestone walks with lots of shops and at…

As I write this, a new year has begun, and I am in a new city but before we talk about that I want to tell you a little bit about the place I just left. Lauzun, France has been my home for the last three months. My friends Jason…

On the train coming into the area of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France, everything seemed to take on this dreaminess as I looked out the window. The mountains watching over our journey, a bit of rain in the distance creating multiple rainbows along the way. I felt like the…

I had done months, actually more like decades of preparation for this move. On some level I have been preparing for it for my entire life. As I prepared to leave the US this past summer, I remember hearing the phrase, “be prepared to feel stupid all the time.” This…