Classic influences ~ Beatles/McCartney (of course), John Denver, Emmylou Harris, Townes van Zandt, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Jessi Colter, Stevie Nicks
When I was a little girl, and much older and wiser than I am now, I scribbled a note on a piece of paper and tacked it to my wall. It said…
“The greatest temptation in life is to settle for less.”
That little piece of paper traveled with me everywhere, as I went out into the world with the goal of living as fiercely and deeply as I could. I wanted to create a life where I might regret what I did, but never what I didn’t do.
Along the way, I’ve lived lives as a Hollywood script doctor and a professional photographer, a kept woman and the Happy Hour Girl at the Airport Hilton in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I’ve lived out of my car and I’ve lived alone in a yurt in the mountains of New Mexico and I’ve walked the Camino de Santiago to the end of the world.
I’ve skinned road-kill raccoons and learned to cut my own firewood and unclog my own sinks and kill my own spiders (and later, not to kill them at all). I’ve climbed mountains in high heels and stood on a runway and felt an F16 fighter jet kick diesel fuel back into my face on takeoff.
I fell for a guitar playing ex-con who smoked too much weed and looked too much like Tom Cruise, and when he (of course) broke my heart, I fell again — for real this time — with an ex-race car driver who showed me what deep, messy love and the inside of an S&M dungeon looks like. And one night, I drove a brand new silver BMW M100x down Wilshire Boulevard in Hollywood at 90 mph, changing lanes on his say-so without checking my mirrors, laughing and immortal and in love.
I’ve been generous and compassionate and forgiving and wise, and I’ve been jealous and self-righteous and rigid and rude. I’ve made terrible choices I can never take back, and leaps of faith that changed my life in an instant. I trust no one and I trust too much. I’ve learned that love isn’t enough, that chances are taken and not given, that wisdom is more important than knowledge and that no matter where you go, there you are.
I’m terrified of dying and unapologetically in love with my dog (and cats). And sometimes I confuse being important with being happy.
I’m an edgewalker and semi-feral and not quite tame, and I’m happiest in the middle of nowhere within walking distance from everything. The only place I really want to live is Cicely, Alaska, and the only things in life I can’t do without are my self-respect, solitude, silence, the company of animals, wild places and The Beatles on the stereo.