I live in an RV in Montana with my partner and a dog.

We're building toward 160 acres — a farm, an artist residency, a place where people can slow down and come back to themselves. I write about the build, the spirit, and everything in between in my publication, The Living Work.

That's the short version. Here's the longer one.

I came into this world carrying weight.

I grew up in Fairfax, Virginia in a family that valued innovation, risk, and making things — my father built motorcycles and model rockets, and failure was treated as data, not disaster. That foundation gave me courage I didn't fully understand until much later.

But life also gave me edges early. Childhood experiences of abuse. A father who transitioned when I was sixteen. Growing up atheist and nihilist in a secular world, with a soul that quietly, persistently begged for something more. I spent years intellectually brilliant and spiritually starving — moving fast, achieving things, feeling hollow.

The search for meaning led me everywhere. Corporate America. A Fortune 50. The wild frontier of blockchain and crypto. I worked in governance, change management, and Web3 — places where people were genuinely trying to reinvent how the world works. And through all of it, underneath all of it, I was really just trying to answer one question: what is this life actually for?

The answer came slowly, and through fire.

A profound personal crisis became a spiritual awakening. I found my way through New Age spirituality, the great mystics, Kashmir Shaivism, theosophy, shamanism, Protestantism, and Orthodox Christianity — not dabbling, but genuinely seeking. What I found, ultimately, was that healing is possible. That the Divine is real. That meaning isn't found — it's built, daily, through devotion and honest living.

Today I study Eastern Orthodox Christianity, global mysticism, and quantum physics. I attend a Methodist Church. I am an active apprentice of the Sweet Sundance Medicine Path. I credit much of my healing to shamanism — and I understand it as lifelong work. My faith is interfaith, expansive, and deeply personal.

I've been an artist my entire life — which, I've come to believe, is inseparable from being a mystic.

What I make.

I write — directly, vulnerably, and without apology — about spirituality, modern disconnection, sovereignty, and what it means to build a life rooted in something real. My writing lives at The Living Work, published almost daily.

I photograph — with film, intimately, documentary-style. Strangers, landscapes, desire, and the sacred ordinary. Photography is one of my deepest contemplative practices.

I offer spiritual direction — one-on-one companionship for people navigating the spiritual path. I'm completing my certification through The Chaplaincy Institute, an interfaith program based in California. My approach is non-directive: I believe you are your own greatest teacher, and the Divine is already working through you.

What I'm building.

The farm is the vision that holds everything together. Over 160 acres in a beautiful landscape — a working sheep farm, a flower farm, horses, small cabins, RV spots, and long-term artist residencies alongside short-term stays for families, seekers, and creatives. A place that can hold up to 60-70 people living and visiting at once. A community, not just a destination.

We're in the early stages. I'm working, writing, and building an audience of people who believe in this vision. If that's you — I'd love for you to follow along, subscribe to The Living Work, or reach out directly.

Formally speaking.

Valerie holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science with minors in Business and Nonprofit Management from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Certification in Venture Creation from VCU's DaVinci Center. She has studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, The Sorenson Institute for Political Leadership, and Leadership Fairfax's Emerging Leaders Program. She is an AmeriCorps alumna and a CASA volunteer.

Her training in healing and spiritual practice includes Onami's 40-Hour Training on Trauma Repair, ISTA Level 1, Shamanic DeArmoring, and ongoing apprenticeship on the Sweet Sundance Medicine Path.

The paths that expand us are usually the right ones.