Raised in small-town Connecticut, educated in public schools, then Harvard and Temple Universities, I’ve had a mixed metaphor of a career. I’ve been a (happy) fish out of water: a doctoral student in psychology with an undergraduate history degree; a psychologist in pediatric medicine; a clinician among academic scholars; a social scientist working with English professors, engineers, and philosophers; a writer teaching medical students. All the while, I wrote essays, editorials, travel pieces, and now, my forthcoming book. So, I’ve evolved and prefer to call myself an amphibian.

 

But I promised a mixed metaphor. My life is also an improvised, patchwork quilt of pieces gathered from sojourns in Costa Rica, Israel, Gambia, Provence, Ecuador, and the best, continuous journey of all--being a mom. Now, I teach writing workshops on Cape Cod and in Philadelphia. I’m a haphazard birder and a passionate observer of butterflies, unspoiled habitats, and turtles. Hiking, family, books, close friends, religious observance and secular ritual, music and dance: all lend my quilt color and sublime, if elusive patterns. And I’m still working on it, with clumsy stitches that depict me starting to learn the piano, and along the rough edge, a new design for my next book.