I am smitten with sunflowers and a sucker for sugar in just about any form. I’d always rather have dessert first and would happily forgo dinner altogether. But not breakfast. Breakfast I love in all of its salty-sweet, smooth-crunchy glory followed by a deep cup of coffee and just after a long morning run. There is not much that I know for sure, but I know I’m a better person after a (moderate) morning run. Early to rise and really early to bed, I wish it could always be morning. I also wish I could simultaneously live on the ancient streets of a European city, along the hip wildness of a South African coast, and against the rugged foothills of the American Rockies. I’m an idealist in that way,  I guess. I believe optimists are happier people and pragmatists get things done and I try my damnedest to straddle the two. And when I fail miserably, which I often do, I at least love myself for trying. I also love old trucks, dirt roads, cowboys and kitchen dance parties. I’ve been known to fall in love with music about a decade after it comes on scene and I’m shameless in my passion for bold (obnoxious) colors. The world is a big, beautiful place and I want to see all of it. So far I’ve been lucky to see some. What I have seen has convinced me whole-heartedly that we have what it takes to rock the socks off this planet and I plan to die trying. People are good, of that much I’m sure, and I believe that a potent combination of creativity, flexibility, and resourcefulness will solve most of our big problems, of which there are many. When I’m not scheming up ways to solve some of said problems, I’m hunkered against the foothills on our teeny tiny urban homestead, raising a flock of chickens, chasing my crazy husband [A] down rivers and up hills, and daydreaming about all kinds of adventure.