CURRENT MISSION

To be of service and meet new people while sharing

ABOUT ME

I believe in sharing resources and changing our world by living differently and better. I love to read, dance, write, create, sing, cook, garden, and every single thing that is life affirming. I love people and enjoy all of their stories.

PHILOSOPHY

You can't take it with you. Be gentle, give freely, enjoy people, don't judge, listen closely, open your heart, know when people need your truth and when they don't, be personally responsible, relate don't control, when in doubt, read, write poetry, draw, paint, dance, be the change you want to see in the world, live the relationships you want to find. Know thyself; heal thyself. Be. Here. Now.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm currently a member of Transition Nashville, a member of a writing group I formed that's been successful for over a year now, involved in Re-Evaluation Co-Counseling, trainee as community organizer with same organization for whom President Obama worked before his political career took off, writing a screenplay and a memoir, a full time teacher, a mother of a 27-year-old awesome woman who lives on the west coast, a literary enthusiast, a prison pen pal, an animal lover, a meditator and wanna be yogi (I do my best). I'm a warm and friendly person who enjoys sharing.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My friends Jon and Rachel and Rob turned me on to the idea of couch surfing and this is my foray into the unknown. Yay! Over the course of my life, various friends and strangers have taken me in. I remember once at age 23 hitchhiking through Utah and a family took me in in Salt Lake City, fed me an amazing breakfast, and were just kind and good. People are basically good as Anne Frank wrote and I believe that, too. I just want to give back.

Interests

Working on a book, and a screenplay, shadow-boxing a singing-guitar playing musical venture with my friend Trish to bring song to seniors in assisted living high rises in Nashville, trying to pull together an environmental theatre troupe to raise awareness about the need to love the planet now and really change the way we are treating her -- just a few of my interests (while teaching teenagers full time).

• animals
• writing
• books
• poetry
• singing
• dancing
• cooking
• breakfast
• baking
• gardening
• reading
• knitting
• painting
• drawing
• guitar
• whitewater rafting
• surfing
• boxing
• teaching
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

So many! Love British writers: Allan Hollinghurst, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan. Recommend The Happiness Project, Three Junes, Dorothy Day's The Duty of Delight; just taught for the 25th time The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye; gearing up to teach The Things They Carried and a unit on American Drama. Enjoy Kasey Musgraves new album, the Grammy collection, Macklemore and Lewis' The Heist, love Adele, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, old Motown any album. Movies: Fruitvale Station blew me away; The Dallas Buyers' Club was a phenom (Dictionary.com word of the day), loved The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (I want to live in India someday). Love WPLN (Nashville's NPR station and PBS.)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Being a mom. Whitewater rafting. Earning an advanced degree.
Visited China, Switzerland, Italy, Mexico. Grand Canyon. Yosemite.
Taught teenagers for 30 years. All my students have changed me!
Lived for 35 years in Northern California.

Teach, Learn, Share

Journal writing. Poetry. Editing.
Knitting. Cooking. Baking. Quilting. Vision boards.
Gardening. Child-rearing.
Reading. English language studies.
Dance. Movement.