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Dear Friends,

After a 3 year hiatus from designing and all things construction related, I am happy to be designing and drawing again with my favorite team ever at Misael Ochoa Design & Construction. Being in the office with Carmen, Javier and Misael -- as well as seeing the infamous Fantasticos -- on a regular basis feels like coming home.My history in designing and building spanned 28 years before taking a break, 9 of those years were spent intensely training to take the reins of the helm and 19 of those years were invested in being the lead for our team. During that time, I sometimes wondered what it might be like to take a back seat in this field, allowing my office time to be solely focused on design. I am very happy with this new role.The spaces that surround us -- buildings, walls, roofs, gardens, sky above, earth below, the environment we work, live and breathe in -- are as important to our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing as is the space within our minds and hearts.

And, I am still teaching my regular yoga classes as well as growing my healing arts practice at our Buenos Aires family home compound. It's all connected. This ongoing experience of feeling home on this earth is as much about feeling at home in our own hearts, minds and bodies as it is about feeling at home in the buildings and places we live, work and play within.

At the heart of my life's work is understanding this relationship between buildings and bodies and what it means to feel at home. At the very least, to understand this relationship from my unique lense as an Architect & Yogi: I have this vivid memory of standing in my office, feeling my feet on the ground, looking at plans pinned to my wall -- I even remember it was sometime in 2013 -- when I felt this spark with the words, "buildings & bodies". I wrote those two words on a piece of paper and pinned it to the inspiration board next to my desk. There was and is something so alive in that connection. How we live within these minds, our hearts, these bodies, the places we call home. How these places reflect what is inside our minds, hearts and can even mimic how we dress. Our homes are like a second skin, an extension of ourselves. And all of this is constantly changing.

Another vivid memory around home and design is from my childhood. This memory brings to light the fact that my first Mentor in the art of Home Design was my dad. We lived in Northern California in small house with a large picture window in the living room. I remember my dad saying how common it is to design a house to face a street without taking the elements into consideration. He explained: the large picture window in the living room faces north and so, we get no sunlight from the largest window in the house. In addition, the house was pulled back from the street, and I remember there was barely about 4 feet to the neighbors fence line. Small bedroom and kitchen windows faced south. Not enough to draw in any -- albeit rare enough in that part of the country! -- sunlight to help warm our home. I remember shade in the backyard due to the neighbors trees. Even if we wanted to make those windows bigger, the house was too close to the neighbor's fence. Warming with house with additional sunlight wasn't an option. So, when I designed our home on the hill, I included a large picture window in our living room, just like the one in our home in Crescent City and this one faces south! Our home on the hill is warm in the winter and cool (relatively, for our climate) in the summer. Mordecai, my dad, who would have been 76 this year -- he's been gone and missed for 25 years -- I can imagine him standing in this living room, smiling. He would have been so proud. This home is designed right.

Thank you for being part of my life's curiousity, learning and adventure. You too have inspired my creativity, contributed something valuable to my understanding about what it means for each one of us to feel at home in this world and your support  helps me feel more at home too.

"A home is not simply a building; it is the shelter around the intimacy of a life. Coming in from the outside world and its rasp of force and usage, you relax and allow yourself to be who you are. The inner walls of a home are threaded with the textures of one's soul, a subtle weave of presences. If you could see your home through the lens of the soul, you would be surprised at the beauty concealed in the memory your home holds. When you enter some homes, you sense how the memories have seeped to the surface, infusing the aura of the place and deepening the tone of its presence. Where love has lived, a house still holds the warmth. Even the poorest home feels like a nest if love and tenderness dwell there."

JOHN O'DONOHUE