We humans have a natural need to honor beauty and to express it in some material form. 

I endeavor to bring the values of care, attention, and respect to my work in the arts, in spiritual inquiry, and with food and gardening. I’ve been fortunate to share knowledge and exploration of these fields with many people across the nation through many classes, workshops, seminars, and retreats over the years. I’ve also had the fortune to travel widely, including four years of living in Tuscany and Lombardy, Italy, where I worked as a freelance graphic artist. From that experience I returned to the United States with great fondness for the Italian people, and an abiding love of Italian language, food, art and music.

I practice and teach meditation in the Buddhist Theravada and Soto Zen traditions at meditation centers in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas and have certified in the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders teacher-training program. My training has included retreats and studies at Insight meditation centers in the United States and Burma, studies and practice of Soto Zen with Angie Boissevain in U. S., and retreat practice in Tibetan lineages with Lama Tsultrim in the U. S.

My Master of Fine Arts in Writing is from Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont, and my undergraduate education was in Creative Writing and English Literature at California State University Northridge, Los Angeles. 

In community work, I serve on the Insight Santa Cruz Teachers Council, the board of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, Redwood City, CA, the advisory boards of the Dante Alighieri Society, Santa Cruz CA chapter and the Poetry Center San Jose in San Jose, CA. I founded and administered The Growing Good Things Garden Program at Cory Elementary Academy in my previous home town of San Jose, CA.

With my partner and husband Dick Walvis, I make my home and garden in Santa Cruz, California.