Beneath the tree called Grandfather, standing tall in a small copse of trees amid the sweet grass of the eastern plains of Colorado, I listened to leafy tales. Hiding in a lilac hedge along the fence-line in my backyard, I made my home with faeries and many insects, closely observing the natural world. More often than not, I could be found lounging in the branches of a tree with either a book or a pencil and notebook, vehicles for my imagination. Climbing a hill, I once saw the moon, full and sitting low on the horizon. It was orange and I could see nothing else. I hunt for that moon in every evening sky, amid the constellations and their epics.
I cannot remember feeling like I fit in with other kids my age, but it wasn't until junior high school that I was labeled a geek (nerd, dork, etc.). However uncomfortable the term was in those adolescent days, I eventually embraced the term. Star Wars, Star Trek, Tolkien, griffins and unicorns, faeries and elves, aliens, talking animals, Lego, He-Man and She-ra; I'm a geek and I'm proud!
I'm not particularly gadgety; I leave the high-tech to my husband. (I can, however, rock NES Tetris and SNES Killer Instinct.) I am decidedly low-tech. I geek-out over old school crafts like ink- and paper-making, foraging for food in the backyard, calligraphy, hand-crafted books, instruments, cooking and spinning. Classical music (especially early music and opera), medieval literature (Caedmon to Chaucer, and Shakespeare too), history, astronomy, nature and Celtic and Norse culture--I love it!
I'm a newborn mom, determined to raise my son to walk in the world without the fear of labels, with pride for whatever he chooses to geek-out about.
