Seventeen and in her room creating her world. Whether she danced, drew, or wrote, it was her nature to take flight. Stirring with another creative burst, she slid open her mirrored closet doors (lined with her scribbled science notes and equations that helped her study for an upcoming exam). She pulled out her black, button-down shirt and began to make the change she wanted. A great beginning is sometimes at the point of what you thought would be the end of everything. —Dodinsky "Put your ear to the sky and listen my darling, everything whispers I love you." It was on a Friday afternoon—3:08 PM to be exact on the eighth day of
January 2021—when an email arrived and asked in the subject line: Are you still out there?
The sender, Jennifer, was hoping to reach the Vietnamese writer on the
other side of the question, the writer who had disappeared years ago
without saying goodbye and letting her readers know what happened to her
story. Jennifer pressed on in her email: she had been there for a while It was almost time to go when Rachel, Michelle, and Mia placed their
packed bags in the hallway of the Hotel Palazzo Rosa in Venice. The last
train to Spannocchia was set to depart in a few hours to take them to their writing group in Tuscany. Recognizing
that life may never bring them together again in Venice, they circled
back to their favorite spots and the people they met, unaware of the
open door and enchantment waiting for their discovery. She arrived in Spannocchia one summer day, seeking to remove the
writer's block she was experiencing. She had never been to Italy,
never stayed at a farm estate. Joining a group of ten writers she had
never met, she stepped inside the villa, the magical place tucked away
in Tuscany. With the touch of light, both the jewelry designer and the model faced each other in a reflective thought. Both embracing the movement of a carefree flow and unapologetic self-expression that created its own path and connections. In the quiet hours before the first glimmer of light passes through the
rough ground of uncertainties, she stretches her arms in a long reach to
her right. Stretching farther to build strength and flexibility with
each turn and variation. Fine-tuning her body through the rigors of
efforts and practice, each muscle pushing the barriers and turning. The chocolate chip cookies were as decadent up close as they were from the outside looking in. Made fresh daily, they would make a good gratitude gift. But that changed when the mobile designer stepped inside L.A. Burdick Chocolates, a 1,000-square-foot chocolatier shop and café that invited her to consider other possibilities. The artist understood what had to be done even if she didn't know where she was going with the elephants made of jade, agate, jasper, and onyx. With the birth of creativity in her hand, she took in the moment of realizing a dream coming to life. She leaned forward and with the tap of her trackpad, she opened her online miamese shop. One by one, the reviews came together and were alighting everywhere. It didn't seem momentous at the time when Mia stepped away from her desk and writing a novel. A break was needed, and she decided to try again to find a housewarming gift for her sister and her family. She returned to Anthropologie, opening the double wooden doors. She wasn't expecting much when she entered the two-level store. |
"Mia's writing is beautiful. She has a unique combination of quiet grace, amazing creativity, and what I sense is unwavering strength." —Stephanie K., subscriber