Twenty-something years ago, I started a series that had no name. It began in New Orleans. I was 22 years old and wanted an excuse to go up to folks that caught my curiosity and capture their story through words and photos. The no-name series took on a life of its own. It was inside of me. I found myself drawn to capturing the stories and photos of people focused on labors of purpose. None of them seemed to be doing it for the money. Many shared with me their journeys of resilience which were always tied to their labors of purpose. Their purpose-driven passion seemed like their roadmap, like an internal compass that was guiding them. The series has followed me for two decades and counting as I’ve leapt back and forth across the country from New Orleans to Ventura, California, to New York City, to Reno, to San Francisco, to Vermont, to Half Moon Bay, California, back to Vermont, and finally, to Aptos, California. The people I’ve feature have often revealed themselves in serendipitous ways. At first, I didn’t know why I was collecting their stories or even how their stories were related. Over the years, the series has adopted different names and been published in the media outlets I’ve worked at. It took true shape at the Half Moon Bay Review in San Mateo County, California, and with the help of editor Clay Lambert it was known as “Against the Tide.” At the start of the pandemic, it found at new home with Seven Days and Kids VT under the title “Vermont Visionaries.” I started this collection in 2002 without even realizing it. Twenty years later, I was sitting on the beach in Burlington, Vermont. It hit me that the connective thread between all the people I had collected for two decades was their “Labor of Love.” And my husband, who was sitting right next to me during this aha moment said, “And it’s your labor of love too.”