Growing up in Duluth, Minnesota, set the blueprint for my life. The freedom to spend hours lost in a book, and the amazing teachers who encouraged me outward, put me on a path that led to writing jobs at national magazines, global ad agencies, fancy corporations, and a small non-profit that provided art programs for an impoverished New York City school system.

Living in a small, isolated town, where conformity was the highest virtue, created in me a desire to experience other ways of living, which led me to Manhattan, where I met my husband, raised two kids in a two-bedroom apartment in the East Village, and still think of as home. The lakes and rivers of Minnesota, the challenge of winter, and the short-lived glory of summer gave me a love of nature, which I indulge every day of my retirement in the little village of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, a town without a single stop light, elevator, or gas station.