Put a Fork in It

I went to the Sharing Garden, yet again, at the community garden for refugees-of-war in the most diverse square mile in the USA. I had created it a year and a half ago when my scheduled departure for Peace Corps Uganda as an Agribusiness Specialist (with a secondary project working with women and girls on…

Goats and Grapes

First stop, a goat farm in North Carolina. That’s the plan right now for #RoundAmericaWithADuck* across the USA via bikes, buses, trains and WWOOFing on organic farms. Pilot testing is being scheduled right now on a nonprofit urban farm here in Metro Atlanta, staying in a teardrop camper in the woods for 10 days. It’s…

A Sign

I PRAY FOR A SIGN FROM MY HIGHER POWER EACH DAY. MAY I HEAR AND HEED YOUR CALLING FOR ME, I SAY. AND SURE ENOUGH, IT COMES. EVERY DAY, IN SOME WAY.  Yesterday was at my Sharing Garden at a community garden for refugees-of-war in the most diverse square mile in the USA. This sign was…

And Yet, Here I Am

My Burmese neighbor at the community garden for refugees-of-war crouches low and watches me water. She shows up almost every time I’m there, either because she goes there a lot or because she sees me from her apartment next door and comes. She likes to chat but we don’t speak each other’s languages however hard…

Peace Corps Update

Here’s the final chapter of my Peace Corps journey. If interested, you can read the full 36-minute account: Leaving Suburbia for the Peace Corps ____ 8. A NEW FRONTIER So much time has passed since I last updated you. So much in fact, that if I had gone to Uganda when I was scheduled to leave…

New Chapter

I’ve written the next chapter of Leaving Suburbia for the Peace Corps, but, sorry, I’m not sharing it yet! All work from here on is exclusive to the forthcoming book. You can take a free 23-minute sneak peek at the first few chapters here, if interested.

You Gotta Be In It to Win It

So, after twenty years of watching with my family as our hallowed Saturday night ritual, and now with my Peace Corps service delayed (potentially for years) by COVID-19, I finally applied for Survivor. Making a fun 3-minute video served to remind me of my unique competitive advantages, which gave me a jump-start on believing this…

Hope for the Flowers (and All of Us)

“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.”  Seeing this beauty in my garden yesterday gave me hope and renewed faith in humanity. The Black Lives Matter movement is changing inhumane practices and moving people to action in many ways. We’re experiencing the biggest Bike Boom since I came of…

And So It Grows

Yesterday, it was time. And once you start harvesting the garlic, it’s hard to stop. You grab each one by the neck and give a little yank and never tire of oohing and aahing at the size and miracle of it all.  My younger daughter got the honors, and it was fun, especially considering I…

A Departure from the Plan

I am a Peace Corps Invitee, originally scheduled to depart for Peace Corps Uganda on June 4, 2020 (a week from tomorrow). Additionally, I am part of the roughly four percent of Peace Corps Volunteers who are over the age of 50, and part of the less-than-one-percent who are married (although my husband isn’t serving with…