I have been a world traveler since the age of eleven when my mother took me to live in Italy for three years. Being an only child during all these years, I grew up fast and was drinking espresso and watered down wine by the time I was fourteen. I have traveled in Europe extensively, and experienced the exotic landscapes of India, Cambodia, Bhutan, Japan, Kenya, China, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, Cuba, and most recently the Galapagos. Throughout all my travels I kept detailed journals and documented and photographed the adventures.
At twenty I married, terribly young and pregnant, and had to postpone my college career for some years, but eventually - the mother of two adolescent girls - I graduated with a BA in Creative Writing and MA in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University. With a certificate to teach English at the college level, I began a teaching career at San Francisco State, followed by 13 years teaching writing and literature at UNM- Taos in New Mexico. During the 1990s I worked as a writer for the College of Notre Dame Art Department and authored a number of catalogue essays. Most recently, I have volunteered as a writing tutor for 826 Valencia in San Francisco, an inspired and well-known literacy organization founded by writer David Eggers. Teaching, writing, photography, and cooking great food have been the major resources in my life.
In the late 90s I took on Buddhist practice and have since made it an integral part of my life. Vipaassana, or “insight meditation” in the Thai and Burmese lineage, has transformed my life and my writing. I am a dedicated member of the Spirit Rock Meditation community north of San Francisco, one of the first centers for Buddhist practice in the United States, and I am grateful to have as mentor Jack Kornfield, a revered teacher and published writer, and one of a handful of young western Buddhist students to bring the practice from Asia to the West in the late sixties.
Essays excerpted from my memoir, Bowing to Elephants, have been honored in a number of literary contests in the last several years, specifically: American Literary Review, Travelers Tales Solas Awards, the Tulip Tree “Stories that Must be Told” awards, with the entire manuscript placing as semi finalist in the William Faulkner Wisdom Awards for 2017. Additionally, I have published a number of essays on Elephant Journal, an online magazine with a readership of almost two million.
The loves of my life are: my family (two daughters, five grandchildren, one great grandchild, and various four legged relations), playing Bach on my grandmother’s baby grand, meditation practice, travel adventures past and present, knitting, watching the wild Pacific Ocean, writing practice, teaching, reading works of literature, enjoying good food and wine with dear friends, and finally my book that tells a story of self discovery through traveling the world and practicing mindfulness. I feel blessed that I had the passion for writing to bring that into being.
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