I'm Very Pleased to Meet You!
I've always been the weirdo, but it's taken me nearly six decades to come to terms with that. Better late than never, I suppose! My mother was always told she couldn't have children, so imagine everyone's surprise when I popped out (no, I'm not adopted, I look too much like both sides of my family for that). I was given two years to live, but right from the start, I've never been one to do as I'm told...
In grade school I wasn't the kid with cooties, but I wasn't far from it. I had a playmate around the corner from where we lived whose big brother always called me, 'Duh.' Let's just say I wasn't popular. Oh, I had my friends, and many of those loyal pals are still my friends 50 - 60 years later. I just never really fit in. While I'd play kickball with the rest of them, I'd really rather have been out lying in the fields behind my childhood home, listening to the corn grow.
It didn't get much better in high school. I really didn't seem to fit in with any particular crowd and the other kids still saw me as the dorky misfit. Apart from a handful of stalwart friends who were always there for me, most of my relationships—and certainly most of my boyfriends—were from other towns. It's little wonder then, that when I went to England to university, I 'made friends' with the locals—and eventually married one of them.
The interesting thing about my shift to Britain is they seem much more accepting of eccentrics over there. In the late 1970s I started teaching myself astrology. Life happened thick and fast and many things changed, but that fascination for astrology never left. Several relationships and house moves later, I was just as intrigued by metaphysics as I was in those first hungry days.
My interests widened to include tarot, rune stones, herbalism, and other metaphysical disciplines. I found kindred spirits in the psychic fairs and among the spiritual movement and Pagan communities. It's little wonder, then that when I started pursuing pottery again (first time since it captivated me back in my Girl Scout days) that my designs included animals, runes, astrological glyphs and other abstract symbolism. I had no problem melding my art with my spiritual practices, and worked many psychic fairs and folk festivals promoting the two.
We moved back to the US in 2001, and if I was the weird kid before I left, I was definitely the freaky lady when I returned! This area of Illinois is part tornado alley and part Bible belt. People were apprehensive of my knowledge and skills—and that's putting it mildly! Nevertheless, by now, astrology and tarot were a way of life. I might be a people-pleaser, but I'm not going to compromise who I am.
That led me to some 'interesting' dilemmas. On the one hand, I didn't want to offend anyone by talking about my interests in inappropriate places, but then, how could I be true to myself if I was shutting part of me out? That took the best part of 15 years to figure out! The result? Here I am, in all my artistic flakiness.
This website—this life—is full of oddball humor, different ways of looking at things, interesting viewpoints on debatable topics, eccentric creativity, and more. I live by a very simple creed: "Love everyone, trust a few people, intentionally do harm to no one." I hope you'll like what I have to offer. Take what tickles your fancy, and leave what doesn't for someone else. It's my wish that the world can all learn to play nicely and get along. I hope that my life plays a small part in making that dream manifest.
