This past weekend had me thinking about Lafayette, and what community has meant in my own life. Sunday marked 17 years since my father, Larry Hazard, passed away, far too young at 69. He died at the top of a mountain, skis on his back, chocolate in his pockets, grandchildren at his side, living fully until the very last moment. He was that kind of person.

I lost my mother to cancer when I was 16. She was 40. Overnight my father found himself grieving, parenting three teenage girls, and trying to hold his real estate career together all at once. What happened next is something I have carried with me ever since. Lafayette showed up. The community literally wrapped its arms around our family, and in that season of loss, I learned what community actually means.

At 43, I had no parents. What I had was a community, and I am most grateful for that.

It is not a zip code. It is not a commute time or a walkability score. It is the people who appear when things fall apart, and who celebrate alongside you when they come back together.

That experience is why I chose residential real estate, and why I have spent my career not just selling homes but introducing people to this community and to each other. The team I have built shares that same conviction. We are not just matching buyers to listings. We are helping people find where they belong.

And so, with that on my heart, I am heading off to ride bikes through the backroads of France with Todd, our grown children, and their spouses to celebrate a milestone birthday. I can hardly wrap my mind around the number, but what I do know is this: reaching it with a heart full of gratitude, surrounded by a family that chose to stay rooted in the community where they were raised, feels like far more than I ever could have hoped for.

In a world that moves faster every year, community is one of the true luxuries we have left. Not the kind you buy, but the kind you build, tend, and eventually pass on.

Whatever brought you to Lamorinda, or whatever is drawing you toward it, we hope you find your place here, put down roots, and build something that lasts. That is what this community has always made possible, and it is the work we are most honored to do.