An Introduction

A view from Google of our homestead
(near center) growing up.

I grew up on a country road surrounded by cornfields.  Life was pretty simple as a child: playing in our large yard; getting together with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents weekly; enjoying the creek that ran out back of my grandpa’s farm; mushrooming in the surrounding woods; or just playing basketball from dawn to dusk with friends in the tiny town where my aunt took care of my sister and I every day during the summer.

It’s amazing how life transforms us; how everything changes but yet so much remains the same…

I would describe most of my extended family as very conservative in their political views and lifestyle (though my parents were never very political), and growing up I adhered to those same ideals and values.  I would argue vehemently with anyone who challenged my perspective (well...that hasn't changed).  I was completely pro-death penalty, pro-gun, anti-welfare, and pro-profit.  Then I grew up. Well, we all grow up I suppose.  It may be more truthful to say I also grew “through”.  I grew through the conservative mindset that I was raised with to a much more liberal and open-minded point of view.  I can’t truly say what caused my change of heart, though I am sure my years in academia played a part, as I was exposed to a much larger subset of society during that time than any other point in my life.  It was also partly due to my own experiences with circumstances I once judged others for: being a poor young woman trying to better herself through schooling but without the financial means to provide everything I wanted to for my young daughter.

Me at home as a baby
(note my dad rocking his '70s look)

Yet, through all the changes, many of my core traits remain. I am still a nerd at heart. I love to laugh and I love long, intellectual conversations.  I still love spending time with my family, though that now includes my husband, Scott, and our three amazing daughters.  And I have held tightly to my love of nature.  I feel most at home out in the woods, walking among the trees and listening to the chirping of birds and the rustle of small animals in the underbrush.  I have always cherished my memories of camping when we were younger: hiking, swimming, and biking during the day and then gathering around the fire at night.  That love has sprung up into a lifelong passion for advocacy in a fight that I intend to spend the rest of my life waging…a fight for a more promising and sustainable future for my daughters and all the children to come after them.

This blog will be a further glimpse into my life: the trials of being a mother, an activist, a career-woman, and a fiercely passionate defender of our Earth and everything that entails. Most of my writings will likely focus on environmental issues, particularly climate, but I may stray from time-to-time. I hope that, in some small way, my musings will help you cope, help you laugh, help you cry, help you feel less alone.

Unless we share our feelings, our fears, our hopes;
Unless we begin by taking that first step;
Unless we talk to those who think differently than us;
Unless we find a way to keep our faith, our hope, and our resolve;
Unless we put our resolve into action;
We will fail.
For it is only by all of us, together, rising up that we can meet this greatest challenge of our time.