And I'm here again today. Here, of course, is where I am. I've come to it late, but there's always time for a beginning. Case in point: the near-spiritual renewal of my lifelong creative dreams and the inchoate journey of this blog, a personal-yet-publicized chronicle of my fantastic, beastly life.

Oh, life, sweet and cruel thing that you are.

Odd, perhaps, but I am so fulfilled by these two words: “fantastic” and “beast”. One or the other was always at work in my childhood. The sprawling fantasies born of tightly clutched paperbacks and of too much time spent alone daydreaming; or, the fears, enormous and beastly, that left their shadows on my body, but which have made me all the stronger. Now, as an adult child and recovering consumer finding her place in this often shameful world, I am nothing but grateful that I lived in my head all those years. It's quite homey there, always a refuge, always an inspiration, always a chaos of beginnings, middles, and ends. I don't know. I want to share certain things with the world, but maybe it's like leaving a sign: "I was here." At least. Still, there are a lot of beautiful minds and beautiful intentions out there, and it sure would be grand to explore and -- do I dare -- leave tracks. Virtual ones. Which is ironic, maybe. Virtual tracks. How strange.

I hope you'll continue to read here in the days to come and that it makes your thoughts wander/wonder.

Thank you for letting me be here.