Slightly messy, creative, mother of 2 incredible young women, I am a voracious reader who has carried on a love affair with words since my mother taught me to read at age 3.

I am a writer who is trying to break into the freelance world; an avid gardener who loves cooking, ethnic restaurants, rambling around in the outdoors, meeting new people and learning new things. 

I have been a flower child; a 9-to-5 office worker; a soccer mom who headed up the PTA, ran the fund raisers, taught Sunday School and led a Girl Scout troop.  Now I am a 50-something woman redefining herself - very happy and somewhat surprised to realize that I am not alone in this quest at all!

How did you get to where you are now?

It was a complex mix of bad choices, some desperation, and an unwillingness to admit defeat.  My husband of 10 years was recenty diagnosed as bi-polar; our relationship has been a very rocky ride and we lost our home to foreclosure this past spring.  While I desperately tried to find a place to live that we could afford, I was laid off in February, and finding a place to live that you can afford when your only income is an unemployment check is definitely not easy.

In retrospect, I ended up in an area I've always wanted to live in, through trading a 3-story Victorian for a 2-room apartment wasn't really in my plan.  It has, however, inspired me to authenticate myself; to remain open to the possibilities around me; and enabled me to understand what really matters to me and what is simply inconsequential. 

You remember those times you cancelled plans with your girl friends to go on a "date"?  Don't do it!  When you are older you will understand how important the women in your life are; they will be there to laugh with you, to lend you their strength when you have none of your own, to listen to you bitch, and to cheer you on.  You'll need them.  Really.

My mother - a short, feisty lady with incredible strength and fortitude, and

My grandmother - a stubborn Finnish pioneer who passed her strength, courage and determination along to my mother,

who generously passed some along to me.

My daughters, Lydia and Arika, who constantly remind me how important it is to be one's authentic self.