Author’s Introduction to the Story
Spanning a decade, the story is still unfolding. Parts 1 and II were both written in 2012. I went to Cuba with both a personal and a professional mission. The mission was to gift myself time to re-dedicate my life to my path with music, community and culture and to allow myself to just be who I am while also exploring, documenting and learning for the development of a project called Return to the Roots. Return to the Roots is a multi-phased project in development that addresses the issue of Cultural Integration thru the lens of the Arts and community. Thanks to President Obama, I was able to go legally on a General License under three valid paramaters: To research and film for the Roots project, to study music and culture as a musician, teacher and artist and thirdly as a Graduate Student writing a Thesis on Conflict Transformation and Cultural Integration focused on Cuba. My journey with Cuba will be a continuing evolution and process that I look forward to sharing.
It all started in the midst of my some intense emotional trauma after leaving an eight year relationship. I met a man named Frank. Frank had big chocolate eyes and a tortured heart, so of course I both resonated with him and fell in love instantly. What I liked about him the most was that he was totally and admittedly transparent. Nearly 6 months after I met Frank, I caught wind that he was going to Cuba via a post on Facebook and sent him a chat message that just said, “Can I come?” Within 24 hours we were making plans and within 48 hours I had bought my ticket. Frank was my portal to possibility for Cuba. As it turned out that was about the extent of my relationship with Frank, as he left only a few days after I arrived. His place in my life was purely just to open a door for me to a world of magic, mystery and men that I had been secretly desiring to explore for many years. I give thanks to him for all that it has opened up to me since then and to myself for having the courage to send those three little words to invite myself into a world of magic, mystery and men that has changed my life forever.
My experiences in Cuba and in my time in between the trips opened me up to a path of learning how to invite and balance my primal intuitive wildness with my higher wisdom and led me to changing the name of my business and re branding my work in the world as Wild and Wise. Truly, it has all been an extension of this process and Cuba has been a big part of the journey. I began to share candidly about my own inward journey through blogs and found many women resonating with my sharings in private conversations, and realized that there is a great need for all of us to be granted full permission to be exactly who and how we are and to be accepted as that. It is something that Cuban culture seems to exemplify and is a big part of what created my love affair with Cuba’s magic, music and men.