From Finisterre To Silverton, and Three Years In Between

At the end of the earth in Finisterre three years ago, I sat in a small bar overlooking the ocean. During those cafe-con-leche-sipping moments, I knew exactly three things: I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to be single, and I wanted to live in Oregon.

Within a week of returning to Virginia from Spain, I accepted a writing job that would prove to be one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my professional career. Under the leadership of a phenomenal writer and talented communications director, I learned how to write and was mentored by one of the best—and toughest—managers I have ever known, and for her I always will be grateful.

In a moment of serendipity just a few months after I had started my new endeavor, I met someone—something that I had deliberately tried to avoid—and within a matter of weeks, we were in it. I often have described our relationship as being as smooth as a dirt road in Costa Rica, but somehow we have hit pavement and now only the occasional pothole. He may be my greatest challenge yet and I am quite sure that I have been his. But however we are—we are in it together. And together we are embarking on our next great adventure.

I have felt deeply every growing pain this county has endured during the past 18 months and sadly, I do care. Perhaps too much. And where I am going next, I will need a rain coat because it rains a lot in Oregon.

The greatest wisdom that I have received along The Way has been this: follow your bliss; life is not a dress rehearsal. The only regrets in life are the risks you don't take. Cliches, I know, but they are because they are true.

The world feels like an upside-down-kind-of-place right now. As the country takes stock, so too have I, and I have determined that it is time to return to my family, my people, my tribe. It is time to go home.

Steve and I are pulling chalks in August and will drive westward into the sunset, toward the great Pacific Ocean, and will settle in our new home in a small, progressive community just south of Portland called Silverton.

Hope to see you all there someday.