My life in a nutshell

Growing up in a small North East Texas town was not my idea of a good time. I was certain that the world was more than dirt roads, BBQ's and tail gates.

Upon graduation from high school, I jumped a plane to Germany, France and Austria. The air was fresh, the people were kind, and the adventure was fun; still, I didn’t find what I was looking for. Moving back to the U.S. and settling down in Pennsylvania seemed like a grand adventure, I was disappointed.

After my first daughter was born, I decided to pack it up and head home. A year later, it was time for daughter number two. After another divorce, I settled in for spinster hood, but the fates had other plans for me.

When an old childhood friend asked for my hand in marriage, I couldn’t resist. Enter daughter number three. The good times, along with the difficult ones, were abundant in our cozy little home. Once the two oldest daughters moved out and on, I took the youngest and dashed off to live with the husband in the Middle East where he’s gainfully employed. Another world adventure had begun. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Amsterdam…the fun just never stops.

It was during my extended stay in Kuwait, that I decided it was time to toss aside the poetry I’d always buried myself in, and begin the adventure of a lifetime. It was finally time to write the story that had been rattling around in my brain for eleven years.

It was then, sitting behind a laptop in the middle of a foreign country, that I found what I had spent my entire adult life searching for. I discovered my passion…writing. Decades of travel, accumulated photos and pages of poetry that had filled my time, was just preparation for the story that only I could tell. A story that had given itself to me and had patiently waited until I was ready before it could be told.

So that’s the condensed story of my life. As it turns out, the dirt roads, BBQ, rattlesnakes and beer are part of who I am. But without the decades I spent in search of me, I never would have found my story.