After graduating WRHS, I thought I was going to Pratt Institute in NYC to study fashion design. It was the only school i applied to even tho I had high SAT scores. Mom and I visted the school 2 months before fall term was to start. It was in a Brooklyn neighborhood that looked like a bombed out war zone. Incredible poverty and high crime. Plus the school was full of super sophistcates. It all scared the heck out of this country girl. So I switched to U. Mass. Amherst last min. It was ...ok.... I could take free couses at Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Amherst colleges. So I got an Ivy league education for $125/ semester!

I married in my senior year. Got pregnant and dropped out at the end of my 7th semester. Took four years here and there as I followed my husband's executive career around the country. Hated it.

I had been a psych major first 2 yrs at U.Mass. Saw that my profs were all right effing nuts, switched to art...HAPPINESS!
I became a hippie. Was intoduced to Eastern mysticism. Started my spiritual path.

Then got pregnant and married and became a Stepford wife. Hated it. Lived near SF. Met some hippies...yay!

Had two children, Heather in 1967 (NJ) and Kristian in 1970(OKL).

I got radicalized in OK! Feminism and radical political Catholicism. Berrigan brothers and Sister Lucy.

Got my husband fired from his high level corp. job for arguing Feminism with the pres. We moved to Maine. Bought a business. I opened an art gallery. Sent kids to hippie Free School. Learned about open marriage. Tried it. I liked; he didn't. Divorce.

I took the Graduate Record Exam. Scored 798 points out of 800 on the general part. 610 on Math. Over 1400 total. Good enough to get into most any grad school. Chose law. Took the LSATs. Scored very high. Applied to U. MAINE law school. Turned down (rudely)! Learned later from several practicing lawyers/UM alumni that the dean hated women; turned them all down, until confronted by some woman stronger than me.

I moved into a Commune, (a few doors ftom L.L. Bean in Freeport) with kids, became a hippie again. It was good in many ways. I advanced my spiritual/metaphysical growth with them. But it ended after a few years. They left. I turned it into a Montessori Daycare Ctr. Reagan killed the funding for daycare in 1979. I got breast cancer from over-nurturing others; under-nurturing self. Quit that. Cancer gone, never to return as I nurture me first since then.
That was that.

I moved to Bath, ME. Made a lot of art, taught art, began using Louise Hay's Mind Body healing in new counseling practice.

Many success, including cancer. Its all in the mind. Unhappiness causes cancer. Find true happiness, cancer (or any illness) goes.

Kids Graduate HS in Bath, went on to college and careers. Son is international corporate pilot. Loves it. Daughter is architect. Loves it but works too hard.

Grandchildren arrived: Paden and Sidonia from Heather. Now (in 2019) 22 and 18. P is in MA program in International relations at American Univ. In DC. In Morocco's Consulate for summer. Brilliant guy. Sid is in art school...yay! Ethan, Lily and Elise from Kristian now 12, 10 and 8. Living near Philly.

I went to grad school in Palo Alto for spiritual psychology. Very patriarchal! A real shocker. Left. Back to ME.

I am still in Bath. Heather lives nearby. I am doing a lot of writing. Working on novel based on Steve Jobs' life and cancer. I share my Mind Body knowledge init. My SJ heals. Also a utopian novel called "2084". Also a "Past Life Memoir." (I recall over 20). Also started an essay...maybe book...this morning called "Conversations With Nature:a Spiritual Memoir" about telepathic communications I have had with trees, stones, streams, animals and the wisdom they have to share with us. ( some Native Americans still do this. Love Linda Hogan's books.)

The SJ book first draft is done. Doing the edit now. Also have 26 chapters done on "2084". Have 9 of the 20 or so past life stories written. They need editing but you can check them out at https://brendaspastlives.blogspot.com

Your turn!