Well hello there, world!
Who I am...
I'm a friend, a daughter, a sister, wife to my soulmate, a musician, a writer, a teacher, an animal lover, a dog enthusiast (to put it lightly), a beach bum, a dreamer, a believer, and most importantly a lovesick Jesus follower.
I grew up with my family in a little town on Long Island, where The Great South Bay was my backyard and the water was a way of life. I enjoy people's looks of surprise when they find out that I can shuck a bag of clams on my own and polish them off myself even faster. Thanks, dad :)
After my father passed away when I was 11, we moved to South Florida, solidifying my staunch conviction that I will never be able to live more than 10 minutes from the beach. What can I say? My dad's legacy was strong and sometimes I swear there's salt water running through my veins instead of blood (my name does mean "the sea" after all. Coincidence? Definitely not).
I've been working with my mom and stepdad in the family business since my early teens and here's a shocker: it's a seafood market--can't seem to escape it! Not that I'm complaining: free sushi-grade salmon whenever I want is definitely a perk I'm happy to gloat about.
But aside from all of that, my life is really centered on one heart passion: the most beautiful Man I've ever encountered and his name is Jesus. He found me in the chaos of life, elbowed His way through crowds of religion and dogma, violently flipped the tables in the defiled temple of my mind piled high with false mindsets, prejudices and stereotypes, past hurts and difficult questions, and swept me away into a life full of the things of fantasies and wild dreams.
And I've never looked back.
What I live for...
My dream is to see a world reconciled with the true heart of God; not the boring distant one that lifeless churchgoers follow, or the condemning one that sign-wielding gay marriage protesters preach, or even the indifferent one that "go to the clubs Saturday night and church on Sundays" Christians think about only on holidays.
What I want more than anything is to show people the One who burns for them, who wants nothing more than to lavish them with love, to rescue them from their troubles and show them a world of unending pleasures He made just for them.
My ultimate goal is to enjoy God and draw others to Him in the process.
Why I write...
I'm pretty sure it was clear as early as kindergarten that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. In the 5th grade I was the only kid in my class who wrote more than 3 pages for my creative writing assignment (it was a ten-page saga about a girl who discovered a magical time-traveling door in her school's storage room, to be exact). I used to fantasize about becoming a best-selling novelist like JK Rowling, or a well-loved children's poet like Shel Silverstein. I even made up my own clever little names and poems to put on the heart-shaped tags you find on the bean-filled ears of Beanie Babies (remember them?).
Regardless of the fact that I'm not a published novelist (yet) and have never gotten the child-like pleasure of seeing my work on a Beanie Baby, I've found that writing is always rewarding, especially when it can be shared over the internet to an (almost) infinite audience. For that reason, I created this blog and it has a very special place in my heart. There's something beautiful about a creative outlet that has the potential to speak into someone else's life on a deeper level than just pleasure reading.
I think this generation of Jesus-lovers has a lot to say and I'm taking the initiative to say it! Wisdom knows no age when it comes to the Kingdom of God which is why I feel bold enough to share what He speaks to me. He desires to speak to each and every one of His kids and my hope is that anyone who stumbles upon my blog will be compelled to hear His voice for themselves.
<3 Hali
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