Author, Teacher, Creativity Coach

I have memories from before I was two years old. But then, I was the unusual kid who would ask questions like Why am I me? I wondered what it would be like to be inside someone else. I also developed an early strong sense of justice. That's what I call it now. I'm guessing other kids might have called it bossy. I wanted to fix people and to be what everyone else needed. Much much later, I figured out the only one I needed to "fix" was me!

I grew up in the lakes and pines of northern Minnesota. As a kid, I loved building forts in the woods and snow, canoeing in rivers, ice-skating on frozen lakes or swimming in them on searing summer days, calling loons, sneaking up on rabbits, climbing trees... Now I live on a Pacific Northwest island where everything is bigger—the water, hills, trees—and exploring it all still brings me joy!

My mom liked to tell a story about taking me along to a Sunday school class she taught when I was three. As she tried to get the group of older kids to sing louder at a program, I was the only one who complied. I loved to dance when she played piano. Mom said we had to take piano lessons for five years before we could decide if we wanted them. She made us practice before we could do anything else after school, saying  we'd thank her some day. I did!

We didn't have a local library, but my grandmother, who was a teacher, gave us books. My mom read to us, and we always saw her reading. I remember Mrs. Jacobson, our school librarian, reading us Winnie the Pooh in first grade. I felt honored that she trusted us to understand a big book like that.

I've always loved doodling, and I once won a Tonka firetruck in a fire poster contest. My mom would volunteer to make posters for events and then have me do them. If you asked me back then what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd say, "an artist!" 

Our trick or treating included  asking for donations to Unicef. We also sold poppies to support veterans.  When my mom saw issues that hurt people in our town, she showed up at city and school meetings. My dad would drop whatever he was doing to help out anyone. It was expected of us, too. I petitioned to let girls take shop class, I made the neighborhood boys allow girls to play baseball with them. 

When I connect the dots, I see I've continued to follow my love of nature, dabbling in the arts, writing, and supporting and speaking up for others. Teaching nature studies and environmental education courses, becoming a music and classroom teacher and a teacher-librarian, completing a master's degree project on teaching writing, facilitating continuing education courses for writing teachers, founding and directing an arts-based school, and becoming a creativity coach were all part of my path—as well as themes that  show up in my writing! Connect your dots! What do you see?