Gypsy is back in the City

Surprise, supriseeeeee....

Baby Gypsy circa 2012 I think

If you’re new around here you may not know that my internet origin story started off as a blog called Labels or Love (Sex and the City inspired of course lol) that was quickly renamed Gypsy in the City. This blog chronicled my love for all things beauty, style and travel and changed my life. Inadvertently, it ended up bringing me a lot of Gypsy energy - opening roads for me to not only travel but move to new cities and create more beautiful things in the world.

In 2019, I left the Bronx and moved to Chicago to start a successful haircare line - and did. I ended up walking away from the brand when I came to the conclusion that my business partner and I weren’t aligned and that I was not being respected as a co-founder. I launched another successful business after that and made magic again. Eventually I created a program called Business through the Chakras to teach entrepreneurs how to build profitable soul led businesses using a spiritual framework rooted in decolonizing entrepreneurship.

I loved coaching and marketing but after almost 15 years creating content online, spirit called me to pull my energy back from the internet and go inward. In a wild turn of events, I ended up the mountains of Northern Virginia, diving deeper into my love of plants and becoming an herbalist. I wanted to spend as much time as I could building a relationship to the plants so I worked in the local apothecary and helped out the local farm at the towns farmers market. You can find most of my “hermit” journey over the last 2 years in monthly newsletters here on my substack.

Country Living in Virginia

If you listened to the first season of my podcast, you know that I originally left Chicago in 2022 with plans to have an Eat, Pray, Love experience in Dominican Republic. I’ve been trying to make DR happen ever since but the more I tried to make DR happen, the more I realized that wasn’t my path. The land in Virginia was clearly pulling me in for some deep healing and I needed to stay put. I began my herbalism apprenticeship and not long after that the land pulled me in even deeper. I ended up leaving the Washington DC suburbs I was living in to go live in the mountains. I resisted this path at first too, but it was clear the land and I had more work to do together.

Did I mention that my middle name is Virginia? I’m named after my great-grandmother Virginia who was an herbalist and healer in Dominican Republic. Life got jokes for real.

As I continue to sit with all the medicine I’ve received the last 6 years I hope to share my deepest takeaways soon. I can feel some things wanting to be expressed via writing or maybe even voicenote like podcast episodes. I’m slowly coming out of my hermit cave and my heart feels ready to share some wisdom.

Back to this story… so remember how in the Fall I felt my time in VA was coming to an end? Well in November I hosted a second plant walk in the Bronx and on my drive to NYC from Virginia I got a full body ping and intuitive download that I was moving back to New York. I was SHOOK. My lifestyle had drastically changed since I lived in NY and I didn’t think I could be a city girl again but I remained open.

Then I got a better idea… what if I sorta kinda moved back and made NY my home base again and then I FINALLY dipped to Dominican Republic like I planned all along?! GENIUS!

I moved back to NY the week before Thanksgiving (literal weeks after that download), put my stuff in storage and spent time with brother. I slowly acclimated back to city life, counting down the days until February 4th, where I would get to skip out on winter and live out my Eat, Pray, Love fantasy in DR. I bought a one way flight and figured I would eventually come in a year or two and settle down somewhere outside of the city.

Welp, February 4th came and went and guess where I remained? In New York thanks to my tooth!!

You see, back in November, I started some dental work to replace on old crown. Turns out before they could put the new one on, I needed to get another root canal done on that tooth because it was showing small signs of an infection. So boom, I get the root canal done. Two weeks before I’m supposed to leave to DR the dentist informs me that I have to get a surgical procedure done to expose more of the tooth's surface in order for me to get the actual crown.

That procedure was going to take weeks to get scheduled and the healing process would be about 3 months. Only after all of that would I be able to get my crown and that process would take another month. I rescheduled my flight for April thinking everything would work out and when the end of February rolled around and I realized my ass needed to stay put I ended up canceling it all together because dime, linda pa donde yo voy? lmao It’s April and I have about 3 more appointments to go before I am FINALLY DONE with my dental work.

My plans of finally making it to DR failed again, and yes I complained but this time I didn’t resist as hard. Just how spirit had medicine for me in Virginia, I knew there was something for me here in New York. I was nervous about what was unfolding but knew I had to trust in the divine and follow my heart. Nothing made sense but I knew I had to stay put. The land was calling me. I was starting to see and experience the city completely different. I changed, so of course everything around me had no choice but to change as well.

Being back in New York now is like like reconnecting with an old lover who finally grew up. There’s history there, lots of stories of chaos of course but so much love, growth and maturity in this new era.

As I write this, I have a lot more clarity around why I was rerouted back to New York and I AM SO GRATEFUL. Shoutout to my MF tooth!!! LOL

I didn’t make it DR how I wanted but I gained something so dear to my heart that I am holding very close. I get emotional just thinking about the fact that God knows all of our hearts deepest desires and no detail is ever overlooked. If its in our hearts its because that timeline/reality is available to us as long as we believe. I’m so grateful for all the roads that lead me to this timeline and to this version of me that I am ridiculously in love with. I am who I say I am. I’m really that gworl and I love me soooo much!

I’m not clear on what this era of my work will look like in New York City but if my 20’s taught me anything is that as long as I allow myself to be a vessel for the divine and whatever wants to come through from my heart, I can’t lose. I’m so excited to be back and for whats to come for us all.

I will never forget the words my girl Noëlle Santos, founder of the The Lit Bar in the Bronx shared with me as I boohoo’d about having to move and leave my beloved city and community back in 2019.

“Leave. Go learn what you need to learn out there and bring it back to our community.”

29-year old me could have never imagined the wild ride that these last 6 years have been and how much loss I had to endure to be right back at my starting point full of so much love, wisdom and discernment.

This is such a full circle moment for me.

I’m back and my gains are far greater than my losses.

Thank you for being part of my journey and allowing me to be part of yours.

Cheers to leaping into new timelines and Gypsy in the City 3.0!