I hadn’t yet decided to leave the law in this first quarter of 2025. I was still dumbstruck by my own extraordinary good luck in life. This quarter included two beautiful snowfalls (an incredible thing for a Phoenician!), family connections in Virginia, and—in Mexico—the kind of pure magic I’ve come to expect whenever I get together with two of my truest friends.

But I was starting to feel like it was all a bit too much. In the words of Ferris Bueller, life moves pretty fast—and I think it was moving fast for many of us in the first quarter of 2025. I was hanging onto every kindness received, trying to use them to get my footing.

Experiences:

Stood in the snowfall in Colonial Williamsburg and in a hotel parking lot in Burlington, Massachusetts; watched the sun set over the mangroves from a rooftop, the Charles River from the window of an Uber, and the desert from the bridge at Tempe Town Lake; dressed up fancy for a night on the town with a friend; rocked out to Light My Fire in a Mexican rock ’n’ roll club; watched incredible dancers break new ground—and Star Wars characters celebrate art—at Tempe Center for the Arts; saw Fabergé eggs and a bald eagle in Richmond, Virginia; swam in the Caribbean Sea and in the world’s tiniest swimming pool; experienced the magic of truly uncommon friendships.

Movement and Growth:

Danced down the beach and on a rooftop; ran a half marathon in Mesa and a 5K the next day; walked along the edge of the Caribbean Sea in a flowing pink dress; failed to escape from the Westgate shopping mall; triked and danced; meditated on sound at Tempe Town Lake and in my hot tub.

Food:

Ate coconut shrimp with my feet in the sand, jackfruit under a fancy chandelier on a Phoenix rooftop, and goat cheese ice cream in a magical garden; learned to make chocolates from cacao butter; enjoyed arancini with two of my oldest friends in Brookline Massachusetts, and a sandwich at the Cheese Shop in Williamsburg. In Phoenix: margaritas, pretzels, and ramen .

Kindnesses received:

A man with kind eyes gave us lucky hats in Mexico; friends offered advice on evicting cockroaches from our Airbnb; a new friend invited us for wine on the roof of her penthouse apartment; an old friend gave me an extraordinary book about her life; a fisherman taught me how to call the murmuration; a best friend gave me grace.