About Me
"Wherever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Banzai. Friends tell me that I have talent for arriving in a place or situation quickly. I do try to be intellectually and emotionally present in the precious present. I find life to be occasionally stressful, at times absurd, often fun, but always engaging. The beauty and even the solitude of natural places are important to me. Yet, I am not only interested in peopleless, wilderness landscapes of distant lands. Italy (especially Florence), as well as the places I have called home (Michigan, Vermont, and Seattle) are some of my favorite places on the planet. I founded and operated an adventure travel company for over a decade. As a professional naturalist guide, I specialized in the interior and coastal areas of Alaska, as well as the tropical rain forests, coral reefs, and ancient Maya sites of Belize. I was fortunate to have truly enjoyed and succeed in that endeavor. Yet my success is perhaps best measured not in the number of the places I've been; but rather in how much I learned from the people I met and worked with around the world. That experience, one of discovering and sharing, somehow led to my decision to become a teacher. I sold my travel company and was able to start my new career. I now teach science at a Seattle high school. To me life is more than a simple gift, it is a generous invitation.