Both my husband Joe and I were raised in Santa Barbara, CA but have found ourselves living as transplants in Iowa where our two sons were born. Originally we moved to Iowa City for Joe’s graduate work in business and my postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Iowa and life then brought us to Des Moines for work. I earned my Ph.D. in 1996 from The University of California Riverside in both Personality and Social Psychology (my dissertation was on subjective well-being and happiness in older adults) and spent time on research but it is teaching which has admittedly been my passion.

Since 2000, while we raised our sons I taught undergraduate classes  at Drake University as an Adjunct Professor of Psychology since 2000 and where their two sons were born. As a family, they moved to Moscow, Russia for three years in 2010 and then to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg for another three years. Work wise, I have spent my growing into middle age years teaching, consulting, writing, coaching, and holding workshops in positive psychology. How do we grow through our years into happy older adults who thrive in wisdom despite all the life lived which is both wounding and healing.

But it is life wise, where I have found my greatest happiness and connection. May I one day be a wise old woman. I have raised and loved our sons, held Joe’s hand, traveled and lived around the world, and moved my body in athletic ways, including long course duathlons, triathlons, running, lifting, hugging trees and finally now practicing and teaching yoga.

For me, The Butterfly with Tattered Wings is a journey and exploration into how we humans grow into being and I give every grateful credit to Jim Finley, my beloved teacher in the Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation, for giving me a love and appreciation of my own tattered wings. This story originated from a place of deep love and appreciation for all of nature, for our shared collective humanity, for the Infinite Lovingness that flows through all things, and my connection with the sacred around me. I  hope and pray this sweet story finds its way into your heart space too. May you come to love your own Tattered Wings.