Legacy of Love: Gifts I Received on the Path of Life

Nan Johnson was blessed to have what she calls a moment of divine grace enter her life and awaken her when she was twelve years old. While she went on to complete college and graduate school and have a career in healthcare, her constant rudder was the search for the deeper meaning of life. Nan believed a career in healthcare, serving people who were suffering in some way, complemented this quest for meaning. She dedicated over thirty years in the medical field in San Diego, California, at a variety of institutions from small private practices to large medical centers. Nan was the executive director for five years at the innovative, integrative health center of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. For the last sixteen years of her career, Nan found her calling in hospice and end-of-life care. Throughout her career Nan was in management and leadership positions, overseeing operations, business development, and clinical teams. At one juncture in the hospice field, she had over 250 staff reporting up to her through her managers and directors. She aspired to be a leader who inspired, provided clear direction, Legacy of Love 230 and upheld accountability and transparency. The hospice mission, patients, families, and her staff always came first. While her roles and responsibilities kept her very busy, she was blessed to have a lifelong partner, Connie Villa, to share life with. Together over 25 years, they were legally married in 2014. They were fortunate to be able to take trips to see family and do what they loved most, being in nature. Their travel took them to the Grand Canyon for river rafting, the Amazon rainforest and Machu Picchu, Yosemite, Monterey, Big Sur, New Mexico, Vancouver, Hawaii, the Grand Tetons, and Idaho among many other sites. Many of the photos in this book are from their trips to these places. Through it all, Nan had a lifelong passion to explore spirituality in its various forms and take workshops and retreats with different wisdom teachers. She did this over three decades. Her book, Legacy of Love, is a culmination of what she has learned along the way. She always had a desire to write books, and even though she did not get to write as many as she had hoped, there has been no better way to share some of herself and what she has learned than writing this book for you.

Connie Villa's photography graces this book. She holds a degree in Environmental Design with emphasis in Architecture. In the early 1990s when the U.S. economy faced one of many recessions, her career as an intern architect came to an end and her professional life pivoted in a way that was completely different. Her world was altered by what became her second "temporary" career as a surgical assistant (yes, she went to school to become one). Working in the hospital operating room, Connie experienced a shift in priorities, faced with observations about what was essential and non-essential in life, and what made people genuinely happy: having a great family and good health. It was during this time in 1995 that Connie and Nan met. Their genuine love and respect for one another and each other's family has been the core of their relationship spanning more than 25 years. Together they have enjoyed traveling, careers, watching grandnieces and grandnephews grow, and attending many family gatherings. Nan's acts of love, her kindness, generous nature, and strength of character are what Connie cherishes the most. She feels blessed to have Nan in her life.For the last 20-plus years, Connie worked as a forensic architectural consultant, investigating construction-related defects. Connie's love of the natural environment ignited her passion for landscape and embarked on her nature photography journey in 2012 while she and Nan lived in Monterey, California. Connie is a self-taught photographer. Her style is an expression of moments captured and details of tranquility that soothe the soul and inspire the spirit. She has studied at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops with nature and architectural master photographers, and earned a certificate for landscape and travel photography at the New York Institute of Photography. Connie's photography can be seen in collections at private homes and business offices. Her photography has been on exhibit in San Diego and New York. To see more of her work, please visit Cvillaphoto.com.