About the Author

I have many roles: I'm a wife, a mom and a grandma, an artist, a teacher, an activist. I'm a gardener and a home-maker, a researcher and a writer.

I like to read. As a child, one of my favorite places was the library stacks (I would hide out there during recess), and all my life, when I've had any question, I've gone to the library for answers.

I read fantasy and mystery, but I'm also attracted to a wide swath of non-fiction. I read books on art, crafts, sewing, biography, philosophy, religion, health, holidays from around the world, gardening, home-decorating... I'm a renaissance woman. And I especially love books in the genre of "self-help": Some of my favorites are listed on the bibliography page. 

Sometime in my 40's I realized that I was working my way from one self-help book to another without really internalizing the information. That's when I started to write books for myself. I wrote what I called my Love Cycle, which broke down the topics of relationship, community, and social interaction that I needed the most help with into 30 days of readings (drawn from my favorite writers), journaling, and habit building. It took me most of a year to write it, then I cycled through it every month for another year, then every-other month, and now once a year. I've also written a cycle on discipline.

The cycle format really works for me - and I thought it might work for others.

Getting my Ducks in a Row

At the start of the pandemic, I had plenty of time for contemplation, and time to reevaluate my life. I just naturally began to write a book about getting my priorities straight. 

When I was working on my list of values and principles, I started with some of the highest held principles of my Quaker faith: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, and Equality. After those I added Love, Witness (expressing myself), Earthcare, Discernment, and Sense of Purpose.

My priorities change over time and with the seasons, and expand or decrease with my energy, but today they are: 

-Learning (study and research

-Health (exercise and eating right)

-Heart (family, friends, and service)

-Creativity (writing, painting, sewing, and other creative projects)

-Career (teaching classes, selling artwork, and other money-making ventures)

-Home (cleaning, simplifying, gardening, preserving)

-Celebration and Play (art play, adventures with my grandson, and marking the seasons with ceremony)

These are the things I try to include in some way most every day.