I am a middle school art teacher and a meditation/mindfulness practitioner. Before college, I had only taken an art class in elementary school. I doodled the comics (mostly Garfield), did NOT draw all the time, and did not have an encouraging family to support my art curiosity. Somehow, I still went for it.... art school made sure to let me know how far behind in knowledge I was...especially during critique.

I am inspired by everyday things, creative design, books, music, movies, growing things, and–most of all–people. People I know, people who lived long ago, and the people who now live only in my imagination, such as my grandparents or people I meet in books.

I write to understand my world. This poem is about my mother who died in April of 2019. There is so much I wish I would have asked her. She would be thrilled about my debut novel, "The Lockhart Women", which will be published in June of 2021 by She Writes Press. The novel is dedicated to my mother but is not about her at all.