Where Love Resides

Love is love, it'd been a long time coming...

Spoken from the apocalyptic wordsmith, Ghostface Killah.

Yes, this has been a long time coming. Viva is back and I sure am starting it out with those evocative words from a hip-hop heavyweight because they feel so right.

A literal ton has happened since my last update: my cooking school closed, I jetted off to Europe, I fell in love with Paris, the South of France and Rome, and now I'm on the job hunt for the next big move. If it seems crazy, it's probably because it is. I’m a planner by nature and jetting off to Europe without a safety net when I came back was probably a little risky. Ok, who are we joking? It's a lot risky. But the downtime and perspective it's afforded me is exactly what I needed.

Before I left, Viva was an entity that I was struggling to define in my own terms. What could it be? What did I want it to be? And all of the answers to those questions were so broad, pulling at many different directions. It became overwhelming and I felt the pressure to deliver more for an audience than for myself.

But, something happened in Europe that switched gears for me. I was able to stop being a part of that rat race and really take stock of life - y'know, that crazy thing we all say we're living out and yet find so many reasons to talk ourselves down from a ledge and not leap into the great unknown? Speaking from someone on this side, LEAP. Because GFK is right, love is love and when you find what moves you, you completely owe it to yourself to fulfill that reinvigorated purpose.

My love just happens to be food and writing about it. Hell, just writing in general is what moves me. So what does this mean for VLF? You can bet that the writing will still stay focused on food/cooking/dining but perhaps sometimes I'll take a moment to talk directly to you, dear readers, as though we're longtime friends, reconnecting and hopefully over something delicious.

I promise to write about my travels in Europe because let's be honest, we both know I ate hella good when I was there. And to not share would be a gross oversight on my part! There's a laundry list of topics to write about and I'm psyched to get it underway.

If you've stayed with me this long, I love you for it. Let's wrap this up with some parting words from the man who started this piece off.

Loved so many times

I've been alone too long

Had to pull myself together

Find my heart a brand new home

Welcome home, Viva.