“But life don’t clickety clack down a straight line track. It comes together and it comes apart.” Ferron

If, at twenty, you had told me that I would ever be a community organizer/lobbyist in what was the seventh poorest city in the country, I would have laughed at you (such that my serious self in those days could laugh). In my head, I imagined myself on a farm on a hillside with two border collies.  But instead I was determined to save the world (or at least a small corner if it) and I spent my twenties in New Haven, CT working for a homeless shelter, lobbying in the Connecticut legislature, teaching social welfare policy and community organizing to undergraduates at a small liberal arts college.

If, at thirty, you told me that I would do computer programming and work on one of the seminal digital libraries and teach library students about technology, I would have laughed. But I spent my thirties, doing just that.

If, at forty, you had told me I would become a dog trainer, work in animal shelters and throw off any semblance of an academic life, I would have laughed. But, one day in 2003, we decided to adopt a second dog, I became a volunteer at the local shelter and suddenly I was on a path, not a straight line track, more like a cow path in Boston, but a path…

Getting the idea?

If, at fifty, you told me that I would be sitting on a farm with 12 sheep, 7 lambs, 4 dogs, a llama, a cat and part-time goats, I just might have believed you (except for the llama… he came out of nowhere) though I wouldn’t have had a clue how I might get there. Because, Magic, the adopted dog led to Quinn, the rescue border collie, who led sheep herding who led to Rose, another rescue Border Collie, who led to owning sheep and goats on borrowed land which led to that farm on the hillside that I mentioned in the first paragraph.

If you diagnosed me with adult ADHD, I wouldn’t be surprised. Thank goodness I picked up a sense of humor along the way. Otherwise life wouldn’t be half as fun. And the manure pile might overwhelm me. It still might overwhelm me but I will go down laughing.