June 6, 1978 – June 17, 2025
It has been 25 days since the love of my life breathed her final breath in her earthly body.
Ximena Carolina Cho—my wife, my muse, my mirror, my teacher—transitioned just 11 days after her 47th birthday. We were married on 11.11.11, a sacred number that follows us like a gentle whisper from the universe, reminding us of alignment, divine union, and the deeper timing of things unseen.
And Ximena... she was divine timing.
An angel on Earth. A Queen of Hearts in human form. Our union was the most sacred alchemical bond, which transcended all time and space. She truly transformed me.
She was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and arrived in Miami at age 11, leaving behind civil unrest in search of peace—a peace she would spend her life nurturing in others. Even as a young girl, she carried an aura—poised, radiant, timeless. She studied fashion and beauty, not out of vanity, but as a devotional art. Her hands as an aesthetician didn’t just heal skin—they soothed souls. Whether at The Standard, Turnbery Isles, or in sacred ceremony, people left her presence changed for the better.
This was her gift.
Xime & I first crossed paths during the glory days of South Beach nightlife in the late '90s. Even amidst the chaos, she stood still—elegant, magnetic, grounded. I watched from a distance. She moved through the world like a swan through water. Years passed. She wandered the globe—Madrid, Paris, Barcelona—before deepening into a path of yoga, silence, and the sacred. She began sitting with indigenous elders, listening to the Earth.
In 2008, we reconnected during a very challenging time in my life. I had started brokering and investing in Wynwood and the surrounding area in 2001, the year after I got my real estate license. I then opened my first real estate company, Metro 1 Properties in 2005 and the market imploded with “The Great Recession.” The entire real estate market in Miami dropped more than 50%. My home was in foreclosure, I had a ton of overhead after opening a big 5000 SF office space in Wynwood. The market was in a free fall.
I was in one of the most difficult financial positions in my whole life and yet this is when my whole life turned around, the day that Ximena and I reconnected at a gathering at our mutual friend Todd’s hair salon in Midtown. We arrived at the same moment, sat outside, and spoke for hours before ever going in. That night, we danced like we had known each other forever. Ximena loved music and she loved to dance.
In her presence, I felt I was home.
We were both young and although I was not ready for a committed relationship then or even when we started dating, I never knew the kind of love that we would eventually share, which has since impacted so many lives, especially mine.
While getting to know each other, she told me she was planning to visit an ashram in Central Florida. She had no idea I had been raised there—that my grandmother had founded it. At that time she didn’t know much about my background, my world, my work, my lineage. She didn’t even know about my real estate career. She only knew me from nightlife.
Years before yoga classes were being hosted on nightclub dancefloors or kirtan and medicine music found their way into Miami’s mainstream scenes, she asked if I’d join her at a Deva Premal concert at Unity on the Bay, a unitarian community church off Biscayne and 21st Street. I immediately said yes. I think she was surprised that a night club promoter, so she thought, would want to go. But little did she know. She was definitely surprised when the community referred to me as a “spiritual brother” when we arrived.
3 weeks later I invited her to come with me to the ashram to meet my grandmother. In 2011, Ximena and I married on 11-11-11, in sacred ceremony at the ashram with my grandmother overseeing the ceremony.
Our love was a sacred union. It was ceremony.
There were no masks, no games. Just deep truth, radical honesty, and the kind of love that refines you. She softened my edges. Where I brought fire and vision, she brought breath and balance. She reminded me of what mattered most—again and again and again.
She was a very rare and special being. Words truly cannot contain the essence of her power, how she spread love and light wherever she went just by walking into the room.
She possessed a unique power, I call SOFT POWER.
She didn’t need to convince or explain her teachings to anyone. Her undivided focus on each of those in her midst embodied the teachings.
The effects of this Soft Power is something I am only now beginning to understand - along with the others whose lives were transformed by her presence. She provided us all with 111% of her full attention, her presence, which is the biggest gift anyone can offer, especially in the digital age of ADHD and instant gratification. Her listening could melt armor. In a world addicted to attention, she embodied intention.
Ximena had many spiritual names - Sharada - the goddess of beauty, music, art and culture. The Kogi of Colombia named her Kavia for fertility. She served as a bridge between worlds—an ambassador of Earth wisdom, a guardian of beauty, a priestess of Pachamama. Her best friend Jaime dubbed her Angel. She walked beside the Yawanawá, Huni Kuin, Kogi, Arhuaco and the Asháninka. She never sought to appropriate their ways as she reconnected with her roots—she honored, protected, and amplified their voices through musical collaborations and adventures.
Ximena saw the sacred in all things—
in butterflies and banyan trees, in rivers and stones. She felt the pain of the planet like it was her own body. Her life became an offering to the healing of Earth.
She suffered deeply during her 8-year journey with breast cancer. Ximena called cancer her “greatest teacher.” She carried the pain in private the way a goddess carries water—steady, graceful, without spilling into the lives of others. Her strength was silent, her courage unshakable. She led with light until her final breath.
I’ve had the great honor of meeting many spiritual leaders and teachers throughout my life, but what stood out about Ximena was truly rare. She radiated pure light - human flaws and all. She was deeply beloved by those who knew her—and even by many who never had the chance to meet her which has been validated by the outpouring of love and adoration I’ve received from a global community in these tender days following her transition.
The Sunday before she left, we sat together on our balcony watching the sun set. We talked about her wishes—what she wanted to leave behind, how she wanted to bless others. Even then, she was thinking of others. Her final wish was simple: Peace. That we as humanity could learn to nurture peace within our hearts and across the world—that we become devoted caretakers of one another and devoted protectors of this Earth we all call home. Ximena was of the Earth, and of the stars. Our Gaia Ma.
She was my greatest teacher, the love of my life and my best friend.
Her legacy and teachings will live on in our hearts and minds and in every blade of grass, sunset, sunrise, tree, bird song and the gentle breeze. May we learn from her example and embody her SOFT POWER so that soon peace will prevail on earth, in the hearts of all humanity and may we one day learn how to honor mother nature and live in balance with her. Her spirit is now everywhere, woven into the tapestry of this planet she so deeply loved.
So I ask you, if you’re reading this:
Pause...
Breathe…
Feel…
Allow yourself to become brave enough to love more deeply...
Listen more fully…
Walk more softly...
And carry her wish in your heart—
peace, presence, and planetary harmony.
Her legacy is a living one. Let us honor it with our lives fully lived in service to humanity.
Aho.
—Tcho
Ximena’s Living Altar & Upcoming Celebrations of Life
If you knew Ximena and would like to dance with her spirit and join me in the coming months to celebrate her life, I invite you to join in honoring her light through ongoing ceremonies, memorials, and gatherings—each one a chance to keep her spirit of love, harmony, and sacred service alive. We’ve created her Living Altar so that loved one’s can stay connected to her memory, share any words, offerings, a prayer or RSVP to the invitations through her tribute page. We will update this on a regular basis with tributes and gifts that Ximena continues to bless us with.
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