I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
Author: Christa Avampato
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
“When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.” ~ Joseph Campbell via my friend, Marita
My beautiful friend, Marita, sent me this quote to help me along my summer of discovery. We worry so much that we won’t be able to create the lives we want or find the opportunities we seek. There’s so much competition. How will we ever be able to stack up against so many others who have the same dream?
The truth is that the road to those opportunities is already available. It’s waiting for us to hop on the path, the path that is made just for us and aligns with our deepest desires. The secret to finding the road is to tap in, to get really clear on what brings us joy, and then choose it. Thank you, Marita, for this needed and appreciated reminder.
“We believe what we see most often.” ~ Bryan Kest, yoga teacher
My friend, Dheepa, took me to a yoga class here in Santa Monica taught by Bryan Kest, the founder of Power Yoga. During our meditation he discussed the shape of our belief system and the factors that influence it. We believe what we see. And it’s also true that what we believe is what we see.
If we choose to see beauty, love, compassion, kindness, and hope, even in situations that seem dire, then we are more likely to see those things. The lives we have are the lives we will into being. So why not focus on goodness? After all, we only find what we seek.
Today I stopped thinking of loss as something that has been taken away from me and instead see it as something (or someone) that wasn’t meant for me. Same coin, two sides. This side is better.
I heard about Operation Mend on the local LA news and it brought tears to my eyes. Through Operation Mend, local Los Angeles families open their homes to “provide returning military personnel with severe facial and other medical injuries access to the nation’s top plastic and reconstructive surgeons, as well as comprehensive medical and mental-health support for the wounded and their families.”
Receiving top-notch medical care is critical to the healing process for these soldiers, but it’s not the only care they need. They need the love, concern, and embrace (literal and figurative) of a family while they’re undergoing treatment at UCLA. Volunteer families open the doors of their homes to offer emotional support, a warm meal, a comfortable bed, and relaxation time during a stress period of the soldiers’ lives.
In its 6th year, Operation Mend has helped 88 soldiers and their families rebuild their lives. While to our eyes the most dramatic transformation of these soldiers may be physical, to the families who come to know and love them, its their spirits that are rebuilt stronger by these incomprehensible circumstances. These families testify that the soldiers help them feel a tremendous sense of gratitude and purpose. In my short-term adopted city it puts a smile on my face to know that on these long and winding streets that I don’t yet know, there are hearts as big as any I’ve ever met anywhere.
We spend so much time looking in the rearview mirror and pining for what was, that we forget to take a good look at what’s staring us in the eyes right through the front windshield. The road of life is so unpredictable. It’s full of wonder, magic, and experiences that we cannot yet imagine.
So here’s the first decision of my creative break: I’m done looking back. From here on out, I’m living my life forward. Thank you to my beautiful friend, Sara Alvarez Kleinsmith, for posting this picture and always inspiring me to live fully.
If we watch and listen closely, the signs we so desperately seek are everywhere. This was my favorite today. I took it in Venice along the canals. To see my full album, click here.
This photo perfectly captures the serenity I’m feeling in Santa Monica. It’s my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean on Day 1 of my creative break. Pretty remarkable. I can barely process that I’ve come this far in my life, a place I never thought I’d be.
Since I started imagining a summer by the sea, Joni Mitchell‘s song, California, has been running through my mind. “California, will you take me as I am?” I sure hope so…
This is a BBC video of Joni singing her hit song, California, live in 1970. The lyrics are just below the video window.
California Sitting in a park in Paris France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won’t give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn’t want to stay here
It’s too old and cold and settled in its ways here
Oh but California
California I’m coming home
I’m going to see the folks I dig
I’ll even kiss a Sunset pig
California I’m coming home
I met a redneck on a Grecian isle
Who did the goat dance very well
He gave me back my smile
But he kept my camera to sell
Oh the rogue the red red rogue
He cooked good omelettes and stews
And I might have stayed on with him there
But my heart cried out for you California
Oh California I’m coming home
Oh make me feel good rock ‘n’ roll band
I’m your biggest fan
California I’m coming home
Oh it gets so lonely
When you’re walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues
So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to Spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading Rolling Stone reading Vogue
They said “How long can you hang around?”
I said a week maybe two
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I’m going home to California
California I’m coming home
Oh will you take me as I am
Strung out on another man
California I’m coming home
Oh it gets so lonely
When you’re walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
More about the war
And the bloody changes
Oh will you take me as I am?
Will you take me as I am?
Will you?