Thank you so much, Sicily.

If women are unconsciously focused on where they fit into the team dynamics, if their nervous systems are on edge, if they are waiting to be undermined by another woman, then they are likely somewhat distracted. And while most women can multitask well, these sorts of energies impact how focused the woman can be on her job.

The Sisterhood Wound paradigm thrives on discourse among women. It influences how women conduct themselves around visibility, trust, support and safety. Often formed on the playground, in classroom settings and in pre-teenage friend groups,The Sisterhood Wound is developed through experiences of comparison, exclusion, betrayal, competition, jealousy, social punishment, emotional scarcity and conditional belonging. These patterns are developed when girls play with each other..

We operate in a society that does not favor women in leadership roles. It begins on the playground field and is carried into every business setting that hasn’t shifted the dynamics. In most community setting of women, each one delicately walks a tightrope of acceptance and approval, and one wrong move causes her to be exiled from the group.

The woman who leads magnetically is not necessarily the most polished in the room. She is the most real. There is a coherence to her. What she says, what she does and what she values all point in the same direction. You don't have to wonder who she is when the cameras aren't on. She is the same person in all areas of her life.

Structure doesn't suppress the feminine. It protects it. When you have systems that hold the operational weight of your business, you free yourself to do the work that actually requires you, including the vision, the relationship, the creative thinking, the leadership. You stop being the bottleneck and start being the master architect.

Purposeful leadership holds a room differently than forceful leadership. It’s not a weaker kind of leadership, it is a more anchored one. A woman who knows what she stands for doesn't need to dominate the conversation to win it. She doesn't need to prove that she is certain.

What gets mistaken for feminine leadership (undercharging, over delivering, being quietly resentful but publicly gracious) is not generosity. It is a pattern inherited from generations of women who didn't have the option to ask for more. They were lucky to get a seat at the table. But now, the table scape and invite list looks a little different. We have the option to increase our wealth, but the question is whether we're willing to use it.

For decades, women in leadership were required to out-hustle, out-grind, and out-perform every one else in the room. They were told they had to prove their worthiness through sheer volume of effort, with class and a smile. Silently, in order to get ahead and to be in charge, they knew that there had to be a disconnect between what they felt in their bodies and what the outer system demanded.

A happy traveler is the best traveler.

I truly believe that traveling is the ultimate self developement. Where else can you learn how to manage stress about things beyond your control, or be exposed to different ways of thinking, or be in the vibration of a new city?

Trecastagni holds a very impressive, three day fest (actually it lasts all of May) to honor St. Alfio and his two brothers. People come from all over the world to celebrate, and to honor the saints, who have at a time or two provided miracles for those who pray to them. In fact, if someone has been healed, or had family member healed after praying to St. Alfio and his brothers, they will pay their respects on one of the fest days.

The other day I was driving down to the Navy Base in Sicily to meet up with my Sicilian friend. We often meet on the base and then go explore from there. She works on the base, which makes it an easy place to park and meet up. On the drive down to meet her, a guy kind of cut me off in traffic and I thought "the audacity"... the whole experience made me think about what "audacity" even means.

Five months after I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, after a long winter of being very cold, I found myself on an early May day taking an artist date to the Christian Science Plaza and The Mapparium. It was a magical day.

Serafina Laurent is a vibe. She's well educated. Loves to talk about art and oracle cards. And on day she invokes power, wears red lipstick.

I have been in a twenty plus year relationship with Frida Kahlo, and she knows nothing about it. After I graduated from college with a BFA, I went on to work at an art gallery in downtown Houston, Texas for about a year.

Over the past decade I have been to Paris three times and I have fallen in love with it more every time we visit. There is something sparkly about it. There is something magnetic about it. I find myself coming alive inside art museums and bistros. I sleep with the window open and listen to the hum of the city.

In the first episode of It Happened Over Lunch we are chatting about Ruth Bernard and her story of waiting a year to take a photograph. We also discuss the concept of "holding on loosely" and what to do while you are waiting for something to happen.

It Happened Over Lunch is a reflective, story driven podcast about the moments that shape us when we least expect it… a conversation that shifts something, a work of art that won’t leave your mind, a realization that arrives while the world keeps moving.

It's leaning in. Being. And creating magic. ​ It's revolutionary. Beautiful. Magical. Powerful.