I always knew that Finn was special – now apparently the judges agree with me! So so excited to announce that Finn Again is 2017’s Next Generation Indie Book Award Winner for fiction! I am humbled and so thankful to all who have loved and supported the telling of Finn’s story. And as a bonus, we have a September 1st target 🎯 for the release of the next book in the series – titled: Truly
“Life is the journey of coming home to ourselves.” ― Lisa Cypers Kamen A journey is that thing that takes you from one place to another. It doesn’t have to be an exotic destination either. A journey is a journey, whether it’s around the world or across the room. But even if your legs don’t work – even if your hands are too frail to turn the pages of a book, the imagination is an
Everyone collects something, but not everything we keep is worth keeping. The ability to take an honest inventory of that which no longer serves us is healthy, and there’s something about purging (the “out with the old” part of “in with the new”) that does good things for the soul. People come in all shapes and sizes, from hoarders to minimalists and everything in between. Although I lean more and more toward minimalism every day, I
Every year on January 1st I go for a walk. I write down the first twelve things I see that seem significant – things that leave an impression, then I flesh out my impressions in my journal and use each one as an inspiration for the coming months. Laugh if you will – this exercise is extremely powerful – and surprisingly accurate. Last year’s impression for December involved a huge tree in my neighborhood. It
I’ve been journaling for as long as I can remember. Literally. As soon as I could spell I started keeping a diary. In the midst of a difficult childhood, it became the only way that I could safely process my thoughts and feelings. As time went on and life got more complicated I still turned to this almost daily habit whenever life got overwhelming, but as a busy young mother, my entries became more of
Hey there beautiful people! It’s March 1st, and that means the premier issue of Modern Moto Magazine has finally launched! I’m super excited to be writing for this brand new motorcycling magazine aimed specifically at women riders – helping to empower them to ride safely and also to find great looking gear that actually fits and is made for women! This magazine was the brainchild of Katie McKay who saw a need that wasn’t
A long time ago my husband and I used to work with a lot of young people. We worked in schools and centers and with youth groups plus had four kids of our own. There were always extra kids and extra teenagers hanging around our house. Like, a lot 😉 It’s funny because after a while, no matter the subject, I felt like I was answering the same question over and over again. Eventually I
image source I remember buying my first bike. It was only about a week after my endorsement class, and one of my instructors had said something to me, tongue in cheek, that I’ll never forget. “When you go to buy a bike,” he said “remember this: When you turn it on, it should turn you on right back.” I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud at that one. As a newbie, everything about riding turned
Standing naked in my kitchen one day, making some salmon fillets and a microwave baked potato, I was forced to think about my life and my choices. Ok ok. It had nothing to do with the salmon. Or the baked potato. Most people have something they don’t like about themselves. Mine is an apparent inability to figure out what I want out of life. Ok that’s not entirely true. I know exactly what I
The idea of reinventing myself is an interesting concept. Invention refers to creative ability, but to “reinvent” means to change something so much that it appears entirely new. Entirely new? Is that even possible? Most of us try on new things. New clothes, new voices, new “favorites”, new friend groups. We try things on for size. To see if they fit. To see if we fit. And if we don’t, we move on. It’s not such
Today was a relatively great day. I overhauled my little Honda Rebel and did a bunch of cool stuff like draining the oil and the gas, removing the gas tank, taking the carburetor apart and cleaning it, and figuring out the air filter was ridiculously dirty. It was a complex process. I set everything out on a table, tried to put all the screws next to the pieces I’d taken off, took pictures on my
I was fourteen when Mt. St. Helens last erupted. I remember my brother, who lived in Eastern Washington at the time, telling us how the ash fell like snow and they were scraping it off their cars. The devastation near the mountain was incredible. None survived within the blast zone, especially not the hardy old Harry Truman, who refused to leave Spirit Lake when evacuations were ordered. Foremost researchers and volunteers died that day. Fifty
Some people call me fearless because I ride my motorcycle and camp solo, but the truth is, this shit scares the hell out of me. Don’t get me wrong, Belle and I make a pretty good team (“Belle” is my Harley – I named her that because she’s Beauty And The Beast) but I’m still solo a lot of the time. It isn’t that I’m against riding with other people, but a lot of the
Yurt camping is kind of the best of both worlds – you get the experience of camping but with several of the comforts of home – like the ability to stay warm, and dry which – in the Pacific Northwest – is not always easy to do. It also gives you a bed off the ground and all you need is your sleeping bag – no pad, no tent, no worries! This trip was kind
I was walking along the beach on my last motorcycle trip, picking up rocks and shells and looking at the things the ocean had left behind. I picked up a particularly beautiful light green stone that looked like it would be much more at home on a beach in the Mediterranean than the Pacific Northwest, and I wondered how far it might have traveled through the seas. I wondered what its journey had been like.
If you’re just tuning in and you want to find Gear Reviews Part 1 (tent, sleeping bag, pad, etc) please click here. Ok moving on to some of the smaller gear type items: Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus Solar Recharging Kit: I wanted to be as self sufficient as possible while traveling, and tent campsites don’t usually have power, so charging my electronics is tricky on the road. I have my phone which is
Ok so starting with my camping gear: Mountain Hardwear Shifter 2: Absolutely loved this tent. I was astounded at how fast and easy it was to set up. It has a rigid but adjustable back vestibule that can be used to stow gear. It comes with its own ground sheet, fully taped seams, and the air flow was so perfect within this tent that even though I was camped at the ocean, there was not drop
I think the thing I hear most often when I’m traveling by motorcycle is: You’re riding alone? Most of the time the answer is yes. This time I shared the first day’s ride and then camped with a friend. It was only a 2 day adventure but I covered 433 miles with plenty of stories and a bunch of gear to review because of it! Setting out from Portland I went north
Tomorrow I will load out my bike with all the camping gear I have slowly amassed over the past year. I will undoubtedly overpack, then set out on an overnight “dry run” with my friend Shannon. The two of us are planning a 10 day bike trip later this summer that will take us through Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alberta (Canada) then back through Montana and Idaho before returning home, a total of just
Standing in front of Picasso’s Guernica at Reina Sofia, I became a different person. And I don’t mean that in some cheeky, self-indulgent way. I mean it in the truest sense of the word. This change was not subtle. It was startling. I have never been a lover of modern art. With its seemingly simple brush strokes, violent streaks of color, deformed faces, stick figures, and incongruent structure, it has always grated against my
