Finding Marisa

There’s a moment in every woman’s life when she pauses and realizes — she’s lived a thousand stories, but rarely her own.For more than thirty years, my world revolved around my family. I was a wife, a mother, a caretaker. My days were full of love, laughter, and purpose — and though the years went fast, the memories stayed vivid. Raising my two boys was the biggest and best adventure of my life. So far.

When those chapters close — when the marriage ended and the boys were grown, and the house fell quiet, and my work revolved around technical assignments — I wasn’t sure who I was anymore. But that’s the gift of silence. It leaves space for rediscovery. So, I returned to where it all began — Galveston Island. Back to the rhythm of the sea, to the breeze that smells like salt and feels like my favorite record I play on repeat. I returned back to the sands where my childhood feet once danced. BOI — Born on the Island — now means Back on the Island, and here I am finding my rhythm to dance again!

Each morning, I wake to the sound of waves brushing the shore, and I feel something inside me stir. The sky, the tide, the air — they shift constantly, reminding me that life, too, is always changing. Some mornings, I walk the beach and feel awe — like I’m seeing it all for the first time. Other mornings, I feel gratitude — as if I’m seeing it for the last. Between those two emotions lies peace. And somewhere between love and loss, I found joy again.

When my grandson was born, I felt life circle back — a reminder that even as one season ends, another begins, softer but just as full. He reignited my sense of wonder, and through him, I found the courage to tell stories again — not of machines or missions, but of hearts and home. Finding Marisa is about this — the in-between place where everything familiar fades, and something beautiful takes its place. It’s about learning to love life again, to find beauty in simplicity, and to recognize that sometimes, coming home is the most extraordinary adventure of all. Here, on Galveston Island, at this time and this place, I am still finding my way.