Welcome. I’m glad you’re here.

I opened this website in 2012 to introduce my Peace Corps memoir, At Home on the Kazakh Steppe, to readers. I saw it as a hub for discussion of the many ways culture impacts our lives. I hope you’ll explore the site. 

You might start with my ABOUT page …

… which offers juicy tidbits of my life (or not) and pictures.

There you’ll read about me: my blogging mission and a summary of the many hats I’ve worn over the years. 

Next, I suggest you dive into my LEARN MORE page …

… which includes “MORE” information (and LINKS) on the different themes from the memoir: friendship, Kazakhstan, the Peace Corps, and the importance of cross-cultural curiosity. I’ve also added links to the many resources listed in the eBook version of my latest book, LEAPFROG: How to hold a civil conversation in an uncivil era.

Interested in Gestalt Psychotherapy, Stuttering, or Travel for the over-50s?  You’re in luck. I update it periodically, so do return. 

Let’s talk about my BLOG, And So It Goes.

I began this weekly blog in January 2013 while still learning what blogging was about. At first, I pulled often from my collection of “deleted scenes” from my memoir. You know, when you write a memoir, you only need so many stories to make a particular point, otherwise the overall story gets bogged down. As a result, some of my favorite stories ended up on the “cutting room” floor, so to speak. My blog was able to give them a new life and I hope you will check them out.  “Deleted Scenes” is one of the categories you can search under. 

Since those early years, And So It Goes has evolved to cover many topics — often whatever has captured my attention that week — with an angle toward the way culture impacts our lives, often without our awareness. 

With each post, I maintain my commitment to three Cs: curiosity, compassion, and courage.

Here are a few examples:

From 2015: My Four Stages of Friendship

From 2016, A look at illegal clotheslines.

From 2017, a 10-part series on Civil Discourse. Here’s where the book started. As of November, 2019 this ten-part blog series has been transformed into a small book, LEAPFROG: How to hold a civil conversation in an uncivil era. In April, 2022, the third edition will be available. More details here.  

From 2018, a three-part series on How Do We Talk About Race? (This link is the last in the series; it’ll take you to the earlier two). 

By far the most read post was from February 2019, Meet Lindsay de Feliz, a guest post from a social media friend who compared not only the cultural differences she encountered upon moving to the Dominican Republic in 1991, but the ones she experienced when she returned to the UK to visit her family. 

In 2020, I had a string of posts on the pandemic sweeping the world. The one with the most traffic, however, was the one I did on wearing a face mask out in public for the first time. I hope you’ll take a look at Face Masks and the Power of Culture.

In 2021, I had only eleven blog posts, total. There were lots of reasons for my stepping away for awhile. And, as I write this, in March of 2022, I’m not sure when I’ll be back. Drop me a line and let me know what you’d like to see more of.

Subscribing to my email list is easy, the link is above in the header and on other pages that have a right sidebar. And, do know that your email address will never be shared, sold, lent, or lost. This is known as my privacy policy. 

Let us not forget the BOOKS page.

I’ve split this link in two so I can include my husband Woody’s five novels that he wrote while we were living in Kazakhstan. I’m part of Amazon affiliates so I’ll receive a small percentage of any purchases made via my website.  And I thank you. 

Finally, we have the requisite CONTACT page …

… where you can leave me a friendly message, to which, I vow, I shall reply, unless, of course, you’re offering me the deal of a lifetime. just spamming me.