I am a writer

I was born in West Virginia. My vocation began after I finished an undergraduate degree in music education at Marshall University. With a friend, I moved to Manchester, Connecticut, and taught music in the public schools. 

I married, moved to Chicago, and taught elementary music in a suburb west of downtown Chicago. 

After three years, we moved to Atlanta. I created a high school choral music program in Lithonia, GA, sang with the Atlanta Symphony Chorus under Robert Shaw, and completed a Master of Music degree at Georgia State University. Two years later, my teaching continued at an Army Post near Savannah, GA. I taught recruits getting their GEDs, a Humanities class for the College of Charleston, and did theatre work. 

Catherine, my firstborn, greeted me on June 18th at 4:15 in the afternoon, two weeks before we moved back to Chicago. We temporarily settled in a 44th-floor apartment downtown and, after a few months, in a condo on North State Parkway near Lincoln Park. Daniel was born three years later, and we moved to a townhouse near Old Town. I still used the same Walgreens and the same grocery store called Treasure Island.

I served as minister of music at the Chicago Temple First United Methodist Church for thirteen years. In my last years there, I completed seminary and was ordained in the United Methodist Church. I left my post as a musician to become a parish pastor. During my pastorate in 2003, I decided to combine everything I had done and do a Theology and Arts Doctor of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. That brought me back to quilting.

After twenty-four years in the pastorate, I retired. It took time to rediscover myself without a role other than being me. I live on the Rock River, where I garden, quilt, and write. I am working on my website and revising my first book. Over the summer, I did other memoir work, discovering myself through my writing. I am a part of several writing groups where others are finding themselves, too. 

How are you discovering yourself? I would love to know.