What an experience this past week has been. I'm posting from Dallas (my brother's home) and letting the enormity and simplicity of last week sink in. I have just come back from the most unbelievable evening of my life and I am jet lagged. But I have to make this quick post. There will be many others, because guess who has taken 3 million photographs. This is my 1st time in the U.S. of A and I must warn you, I'm not going to be cool & understated about this. I am just stunned by the cleanliness and orderliness and complete prettiness of all that I have seen of this country so far. And seeing this place maybe begins to help me decode the unbelievable way that Christine Mason Miller functions. She came to pick me up at the airport and took me to her home which was hosting 4 more people who flew in from different places for the book launch. For the next 3 days that I spent with Christine I had the privilege of seeing how everything has a place in her gorgeous home which was an extension of all that I had known of her and her work online. All the groundwork and planning was in place by the time we arrived and I remember what a happy time we had putting the goody bags together. Preplanned, prepared and yet completely ready for all that shows up. It was her vision, clarity and intention that made the Desire to Inspire launch evening the magic that it was.
Because Christine had told so many people that "Vineeta is coming all the way from INDIA" I got an especially warm welcome and was made to feel like the celebrity from India. It was beautiful speaking to the many many people who came for the launch and it felt even more unreal to sign copies for the book owners.
The venue: Ambrose Hotel, Santa Monica, Los Angeles
I wish I got some more time with the inspiring Pixie Campbell.
This one is not sharp, but it is the only picture I have with Christen Olivarez & i think both of us look happy here :)
Grace Moore
I don't know what is dearer to me from my LA memories, the dinner and discussion I had with Christine & her husband on the night I arrived, or the many conversations I had with Christine at her dining table, meeting and hanging out with Mindy Tsonas and Liz Kalloch (contributors) at Christine's, or meeting the quiet and amazing Maya Stein and Mellissa Piccola. Or laughing non-stop because of the irrepressible Grace Moore and Lisa Occhipinti (do click on the links, because they are each formidable women of substance)But the one thing I will really take back from my time spent watching Christine is how she makes the improbable possible. And how gracefully and easily she does it. Only she really knows what goes being making the ease possible. But when I see her I know that some day, one day, it will be possible for me & for each one of us; if we have an honest willing heart. And the courage to do its bidding. And that is what the book Desire to Inspire is really about. It has got me to this amazingly beautiful and inspiring country, had me meet and be a guest to someone whom I admired from afar. It has given me the gift of possibility.
All photographs clicked by Justin Davanzo & me.
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