Definitions can be hard, especially when you’re trying to define yourself. What am I doing? Who am I becoming? What do you want to be when you grow up? That was always the hardest question for me to answer. It still is.

As of now, l am writing a new chapter—reinventing my life in England as a communication ambassador of sorts. Previously, I have been a corporate writer and an Argentine chef’s wife. I have designed and edited publications of all sorts, mostly magazines, and a few books. I have built a wildly successful creative department for a marketing agency in South Carolina. My life has transformed and grown in straight lines and circles. Sometimes wrapping around a corner or two. Always seeking something beautiful, always asking why, and always trying to remain connected to the natural world. The flight of a bumblebee will stop me in my tracks. The wind in the trees is my favorite sound. Or maybe it’s the clack-clack-ding of a manual typewriter. Or the scratch of a pen on paper.

And this is why l opened Phyra—an evolving stationery shop and artistic space that offers a counter-narrative to the digital world… a space where the art and science of writing by hand is celebrated.

The name was inspired by the Greek word physis, meaning “nature” in terms of fundamental essence or inherent growth. My background in English literature and ancient Greek philosophy drew me to combine the word with my name to create a term that captures the idea of growth through the practice of making with our hands out of and onto a natural surface, whether wood or linen or paper or stone. Letters or poetry. Anything that creates a tactile resonance within you.

As to why l’m doing all of this in the UK? After a pivotal university semester in London, a life of intermittent global travel took me everywhere except back to this land of my distant heritage until some 30+ years later, when a series of both strange and magical circumstances led me to Stow-on-the-Wold.

So please do stop by and find something special to help you write your own new story.