​My boobs looked amazing.

I was standing in front of the mirror, completely naked, gazing unflinchingly at my body. It’s a practice I got in the habit of doing on occasion after I led the “I love you” project with a group of yogis back in Costa Rica in 2017. 

The idea is to look at yourself in the mirror and say “I love you” with no caveats, admiring all of you, exactly as you are in that moment. Meant as a body empowerment exercise, it’s a lot harder than it sounds.

Back to the matter at hand, however. My cleavage was poppin. I couldn’t stop staring - the girls looked plump, full, and bouncy. Not that they’ve ever looked awful, but something was …different.

I tilted my head to the side. Did my breasts seem…happy?

​My birthday - August 18th - is one month from today. I love birthdays. I think there is something remarkable about the day we are each born. At a certain moment on that very day, we as unique individuals, separated from the genetic material that housed us while we grew, and entered into a relationship with the world we now live in.

That’s pretty heady stuff when you think about it. And naturally, in our infantile states, we had absolutely no knowledge of this grand debut into the world. Imagine it as a party, in which you are the star guest, and everyone forgot to tell you. 

The good news, is that this lack of awareness left us as children, free to explore and create in our own little way, without the pressure of having to report on our findings of this great experiment called life.  

However, at some point in this connection, we ourselves became aware not just of the planet around us, but of our conscious self and the interactions we had with it. To put it simply, we awakened to the thought - whether we understood it or not at the time - of “I exist”.

“Found family is often the very best kind. “ - Elin Hilderbrand​

My dear friend Sharon and I were on the phone the other day when she told me this quote reminded her of me. I had excitedly called her while sitting on the floor of my new lovely little flat in New York. Although not yet furnished, this quirky space - with it’s charming creaky wooden floors, funny walls that meet at random angles, and nearly floor to ceiling windows that stream in light all day - already feels warm and inviting. A space where I can make traditions, invite friends over, sit cozily and write.

Sharon is one of my inner tribe - a soul sistah of my heart that I met at the height of the pandemic when I would wander the neighborhood in East Boston, desperate for fresh air and sunshine. I had felt like I was disappearing - terrified that one day I would wake to find no one could see me at all. That I would speak and others would barely recognize my voice, instead thinking it was a whisper in the wind.