About me? That’s a pretty broad stroke. I’ve been asking myself that for years with various answers. But I’ll give it a shot.
Like the wonderfully talented Faulkner Fox, I am a social scientist without the lab coat and clipboard. Simply put: life interests me. People interest me, amaze me, often astound me. And yet, they rarely ever surprise me.
Because ever since I can remember, I get people. On an energetic level, I really understand people. I can’t really explain it more than that. But it makes life pretty interesting.
Right now, my lab coat is pretty much always shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops (I love my Wolkies, thank you very much, Mom!). My clipboard is my mind, which seems to be endlessly snapping visual and energetic photographs of my surroundings, storing them for later use and integrating them into my understanding of what’s happening around me.
While I have no illusions about my imperfection, I like to push myself inwardly to be a purveyor of all that’s good in this world: caring, openness, non-judgment, understanding. I have this crazy notion that life can be better, that suffering (mine included) is a chosen path, and that we have gone terribly askew in our modern world.
Since becoming a mother, I have become extremely passionate (and opinionated–so much for non-judgment) about how we start life. This has led me to a new understanding about why we are who we are and how we might get there. There has always been a natural way of doing things. Let’s face it, we are who we are and we are meant to do certain things as human beings. The “luxuries” of our affluence have led us to pull further and further away from that which should be second nature. Mothers were not feeding their kids bottles full of corporately engineered formula at the beginning of time.
I am a believer in living naturally and with the lightest possible carbon footprint, but I do live in the world, so I’m not faultless either.
Me In the World
I am a mother, a partner, an idealist. I love all three roles, but I came to life when I became a mother to Delaney Amelia, who is now 2. The life lessons that accompany motherhood are life-changing on a cellular level, if I allow myself to pay attention and look inward at every possible opportunity. It’s more than any therapist can provide. If I just pay attention.
I adore my partner in life and husband, Kyle, and I think we’re a pretty even match for walking through this life together. He is the yang to my yin and the ground beneath my flightiness. We are both the perspective to the others’ reaction (we’re a household of pittas). Life with him is good. I feel blessed.
I was raised in Medina, New York, a teeny-tiny town on the Erie Canal in Western New York. Medina is every season magnified to me. I think of it at any time of the year, and I can smell what’s going on there. I love it there. I’m not sure I could live there again, but, damn, I love it there. Besides that fact that my favorite people–my parents, favorite aunt and uncle, and wonderful cousins galore–are in that area, it’s just a place where things haven’t quite become as jaded. . . yet. And I can walk down main street there and feel good.
I attended Kent State University with a major in English and minor in Women’s Studies. Kent was a pretty awesome school, and I had a great time there. After temping, floundering, and beginning my self-discovery process, I decided to go back to school for a Masters degree in Counselor Education. In 1994, I started at Syracuse University where I finished my Masters and continued on for another 12 hours toward a doctorate.
Fate intervened, and I met my husband-to-be in 1998. We clicked pretty immediately, and I chucked it all 9 months later to move across the country with him (to start a new job), get married, and start a new life. Well, not sure if any of you have been to Salinas, California, before, but I’m not sure if that’s a place to start a new life. Nevertheless, we were gone within 18 months to move up to Sacramento (apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought my husband was talented). We loved Sacramento and still maintain that if everyone we loved would move there, we’d land there for good. Still waiting for everyone to agree to go . . .
In 2003, we moved back east to Burlington, Vermont, and then to Plattsburgh, New York, and we stayed for five years. Except for Medina, Vermont is the only other place I’d call home. Oh heck, I’d even say Plattsburgh too. I loved it there. Don’t get me wrong; I was ready for a change. And change we did . . .
Enter our current location: South Florida. And honey, you ain’t seen change until you’ve gone from there to here. Two years in, and I can honestly say that I like it, but it may never feel like “home.” I mean, our home feels like home. I’m comfortable here, and we have everything we need. But there’s something so unrooted and transient about South Florida that I can’t imagine ever feeling grounded here. And that’s big for me.
But I’m here, and I’m happy. And I continue to try to make this place home.
Corrine, I took a moment to read your blog and am so impressed by your writing and insight. You have a wonderful gift but I am not surprised as I witnessed it the moment I met you. I loved your writing on JOY and realize that that is exactly what is missing from so many peoples lives. I think a lack of being present and being aware of all of the tiny miracles surrounding us each and every day is one of the many reasons that people have so much sadness and emptiness in their lives. They choose it. I loved the fact that Delaney wanted to give the acorn a bath. How compassionate and loving. She learned it at your knee. What a wonderful gift. I missed seeing you this week and wanted to send this message to you. I hope the birthday party went well and that Delaney was feeling better for it. Keep doing what you are doing. Be a joy keeper. I know I am too. Love, JoAnn G.