About me

I have been encouraged to write since I was young girl, and it served me well in accomplishing many achievements in my life. When I was in elementary school, I remember my grandfather encouraging me with prized two-dollar bills for creative endeavors like a poem or school newspaper article. In high school, I remember wanting my thoughts to be perfect when they hit the page – pretty debilitating for the writing process. My mom came to the rescue with advice that continues to serve me today – get the ideas down on paper, in all their rambling and imperfection, and from there iterate to polish them.

In recent years, I’ve realized just what an amazing self-discovery tool writing is. Words and stringing them together helps me find purpose and passion and power. After attending Radical Leadership retreats about a dozen years ago, I saw how the stories running around in my head shaped my experience of life, and I was emboldened to narrate more intentional stories. I found the beauty of words for shaping my outlook and feelings. That was the foundation upon which my first book, Mostly My Heart Sings, took shape. That book came out of an abrupt and life changing diagnosis of breast cancer and writing it helped me fully appreciate the catharsis of writing.

Lingering in mindful moments became a habit. I routinely make time to really listen to my inner voice, and when I do, the essence of who I am speaks to me. Some of my key discoveries are that possibility opens in my life when:

• I am vulnerable enough to show my true self and courageous enough to live in integrity,
• I sit with the unfamiliar and what scares me, and the desire to be alive drowns out the fear that holds me back,
• I allow in both the light and the dark as ways for becoming fully alive, and
• I embrace the treasure found human connection.

My intention in sharing my poetry is to create a space for quiet being and invite new possibilities for others. I hope my latest book, And Then Opens Possibility, and this blog supports the kind of introspection that helps us to love ourselves in all our complexity and to connect with others from that beautiful place of who we are.