Back in December as I did my review of 2025 and put my plan together for 2026 I needed to choose a word for the year. This word becomes the through line of the theme for the year. When I began to sit with what the word might be a few options came to mind but none of them felt exactly right, they fel...

When I finally made the decision to move to France and then finally got here six months later in August of 2024, I wondered why it took me so long. Well 18 months on from then I have had lots of time to contemplate this very question and while the answer is obviously complex and nuanced it is also t...

It is truly hard to believe that as I write this it is December, I have a Christmas tree in my living-room and I am about to spend what to me will be my first real Christmas in France. Last year, I had spent much of December in the US with my children but left on Christmas Eve and arrived back on Ch...

For the last year and a half, I have had a list of to do’s miles long. I have lived out of a suitcase. I have moved from place to place to place while simultaneously checking off the to do’s. In July when I arrived in Provence, there were just a few remaining steps on my journey although they were s...

Over the decades of my corporate work, I have been asked many times “how do you do what you do?” The fact of the matter is that in those moments, they wouldn’t have believed me if I would have told them. Heck, as I write this, I doubt that they would believe me today!

The truth of the matter is tha...

It has been some time since I wrote my last blog which hasn’t even been posted yet as I have been working with my team on building a new website to support the launch of a new business with me fully stepping into more unified offerings based on all of my skills but more to come on that in the coming...

I had booked the tickets back in January. I had made a plan to go back to the states for Michael’s graduation, to see Courtney, Shane, friends and to finally get to scatter Todd’s ashes. I would go for three weeks. When I made the plan I was just going for my medical appointment at the prefecture an...

A few months ago, I was looking at the map of France on my laptop. At the time I was trying to decide where I wanted to look for a place to stay either in or around Nice. I had recently decided to put Nice on my official list of places to check out because of its location close to travel links. I kn...

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 appointment at the pr...

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 in life playing this program, there is a p...

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. Since I made the decision to move...