Thank you so much, Sicily.

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.