Birthday Train

4 min readSep 27, 2024

No matter how much I’ve wanted to delay the speeding train toward my big birthday this year, it arrives at the station on September 29th. It seemed so silly and impossibly slow to arrive at the age of eighteen when my dad would point out how fast time goes by. I was a young teen who thought the world was at my feet with an abundance of time on my hands to figure out life and manifest dreams. Dad was right and why it goes faster when you get older, I’ll never understand. I wake up on a Monday and the next day, it’s Friday. :) Can you relate?

But here I am and here we are in a world that has such beauty but a world in distress. I hold on to great hope when November comes that a smart, experienced, sane, stable, dignified woman of integrity, Kamala Harris wins by a landslide. There is a veil of uncertainty for many of us, most especially for women and I look ahead to moving forward. In the meantime, I yearn to be sailing away from everything. The tropics have been a place of refuge and the definition of R&R from my point of view.

My life has been a series of reinventions, survival, and reincarnations — A rollercoaster ride. I was born and raised in Miami and Key Biscayne (island off Miami) where the sea became my blissful escape as a five-year-old. My mother passed when I was three and my dad when I was in my twenties. I began life in a rootless foundation but curious and longed for adventure. Fashion and design college led me to Europe and a love for travel. I worked in fashion dressing windows, to creating my own business (post-divorce) as a makeover specialist for home decor and wardrobe image. In between a fashion career, brief modeling stint, I reinvented myself again as a writer — My book was written during my breast cancer ordeal.

I’ve had 9 essays from my book published, created a workshop, Living and Healing Through Color and given a writing assignment for a non profit organizations taking breast cancer survivors on retreats that has given me the opportunity of international travel. I survived working in the film business and I’ve survived cancer twice. I know I’m meant to thrive on this planet and use my compassion and passion for good. To be purely authentic, I struggle with symptoms of chronic fatigue and pain from my immune disorder. It’s something I must manage daily. But I continue my path forward appreciating beauty of all kinds, being an activist for democracy and rights, but also a life-long lover and activist for nature and all animals wild and domestic, all of which brings me faith in my existence. What and/or where is your blissful place and what brings you faith?

With my milestone of a birthday in sight, I took a look at old photos seeing the years flying by from a baby to a skinny pre-teen determined to hold a 20-pound cat I loved and held close to a nineteen year old modeling in Atlanta and then to a present time photo with a good ‘brightening’ filter .;) Goodness, time has sailed fast. I still have dreams and desire for more connection, love, my book (just recently back from editor with red-lined notes I went through for a revision per suggested notes from a literary agent interested) published, and more travel. God willing