About Me

I am a redhead.   I grew up with all the stereotypes and myths about redheads.    “Yes,” I would nod, as I grew tired of rebutting, “I have a ferocious temper.”   The truth is different.  I’m actually patient and can take a lot of crap, until I reach a boiling point.  

I do sunburn easily.    I’ve had several raging sunburns in my life, where blisters have formed and the skin peeled not just once, but multiple times.   In high school summertime pictures, my girlfriends would fight to stand next to me.  I felt so loved until I realized that by standing next to me, their tans looked magnificent.

All the stereotypes considered, I love being a redhead.  My hair is auburn and it is thick and luxurious.   I grow it out to mid-back length, cut it, and send it to locks-for-love programs, and then I do it again.    I’m at the end of this practice, though – there’s too much gray in my hair now.  The programs won’t accept it anymore.

I also have blue eyes.  Which puts me in a class comprising only 1% of the world’s population.  When this information hit Facebook, and was forwarded to me several times, my friends put up a hue and cry.  “Oh no, don’t empower her like THAT!”  And of course, I was and am empowered by it.  I say to myself and others, “I AM the 1%.”  
  
Now that you can recognize me in a crowd, I’ll tackle the harder stuff, “Who am I?” 

I’m a corporate lawyer, I work for a computing company.  I’m a divorced mother of three men-boys.   I hike and jog and try to do yoga.    I’m a pianist and accompany a children’s choir (the kids call me “Piano Player”, as in “Hey Piano-Player!”).   I love new experiences.  I love music.

I’m a sister to siblings who walk this earth and 2 sisters who have passed with cancer.  My mom and dad are also gone.  I know about grief.  

I am blessed with deep and abiding friendships and I love to dance.  I know about joy. 

I’ve loved deeply and lost.  Yeah, that.  You too, huh?

My trips around the sun have been tumultuous and peaceful, wonderful and horrible, successful and abysmal failures.   Through it all, I’ve been sustained by faith and learning from good people.  I’d like to carry on the tradition; I’d like to leave more than I’ve taken.  

I adore words.  When I read a book and tears stream down my face (Little Women, when Amy died) or I burst out laughing in the middle of a plane (Sherman Alexie’s “grief crap” scene), or I read a paragraph and have to put the book down – “how does this author know me?” (Catherine Marshall, The Helper), I feel alive.   When I write something that reaches someone and makes a connection, I feel my purpose burning in my bones.
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And so, here I am, sharing words, hoping they make you laugh, cry and say "how does she know me?"  Hoping they bring something unique; some touch, some wisdom, some inspiration to guide you in your courageous steps around the sun.