Part 6: The London Years. (47 - Present)
The first time I went to Europe was when I was 18. I was on my trip to Israel, studying Jewish history, one of only three non-Jews on the trip. We spent a night in London on the way over - a city that I had been longing to visit. I remember our plane descending over the UK, seeing all that lush, deep green. Oh England! At 12 years old I had become a Beatles fanatic. My mother said I had made a shrine to them in my bedroom and ordered me to dismantle my little altar. I spent days daydreaming about living in London in what I imagined was a moody, foggy groovy city – so different from techno bright Miami. I would spend hours drawing what I dreamed English gardens would look like, patches of land overrun by creeping, clinging, sprouting miracles of nature.
My fascination with Europe continued, especially as the one-hit wonders of Europe invaded my fashion and music universe. So, at 21 years old, without knowing a word of French, I went by myself to Paris for two-weeks. Pop culture trends on the continent took six months to make it back to the States, so I came back with all kinds of info about things no one had heard of – Marie Brizzard anisette (popular at Les Bains Douches, Le Privilège), the Bowie film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, the band Indochine. There were other trips over the years, many of them for business, but these were defining experiences.
Fast forward to 2011. Newly married, I was heading over to the Europe to live. Real life in exotic places is never as glamorous as holidays and fast-paced work trips, but for ten years I really was living a dream.
We made London our base and we basically hit the road as part of our work there, visiting friends and colleagues from Bulgaria to Norway, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and much, much more. It was truly wonderful. Good times.
I downsized my business to accommodate my new life. I learned the art of outsourcing help I used to hire for, and white labeling some of my strategic partnerships. I closed my office (in stages) and we went virtual. Yes, I would twist myself into a pretzel to deliver work on multiple time zones (our family is in Miami and Sydney, Australia so trips “home” were also on the docket several times a year). My office became trains, planes, and automobiles - no joke. I lived in hotels as much as my own home. Life was mobile. Life was wild. Life was exciting. Life was exhausting. And then Covid-19 hit, and everything screeched to a halt – well, at least the travel.
Because we were already well established as a mobile company, we didn’t miss a beat when the pandemic invaded our lives. The only thing that changed was that now everyone was on Zoom. Zoom fatigue is real. London lockdown was intense, and long.
Today, we’re all starting to adjust to the new normal. Caring for your compatriots - my business associates - has taken on new meaning. Where we used to start with “business as usual” we try to begin meetings with a “check in,” just to see how you’re doing. And many days we are all not great.
This is where my faith always kicks in. When looking out at the horizon honestly, these days I’m not sure what I can see, and even less what I can expect. Fear is real, around so many topics: general stability, health, mental well-being, the state of the world. And yet. The faith that I am in good hands, for all time, keeps me going, helps me stay strong.
So far chapters one and two of my life have been pretty fine, all things considered. So, when planning went off the table in this last season - my chapter three, this control freak (me!) had to reconcile herself to taking it one day at a time. And so here I am, walking it out. True. One day at a time.
To Be Continued.