Kate's Story – A Biography
Like most women of my generation, I have done a variety of things in my life. Professionally, I have been a Nurse, a College Professor of English, an Art Gallery Owner, and a Jeweler. Personally, I have been a wife, a mother and now a grandmother. I have been lucky to have experienced a great deal so far in my life. Throughout this journey, I would say that one overlying theme has always remained in my life – and that theme is Beauty.
For the first ten years of my life I lived in two small towns in Northern Ontario in a remote region in Canada not far from Hudson’s Bay. Both towns were literally cut out of the wilderness. Dense forest was a block away. Memories of my first ten years are full of adventures in nature: catching pollywogs in creeks, chasing butterflies, playing hide and seek in tall grass, creating a skating rink in an empty lot, and climbing the enormous willow in our neighbour’s back yard. Though these adventures are typical of many childhoods, they are extraordinarily luminous in my memory; full of joy and beauty. And they are the adventures from which I have experienced my life.
When I was in my early forties I had the unusual experience of being identified as a member of the hummingbird clan. The hummingbird is the messenger of joy and beauty and members of that clan cannot live without creating beauty or, at the very least, having beauty around them. When we heard this, my husband and I laughed, as I was always the driving force behind regular visits to the ballet, opera and symphony. Beautiful events continuously structured my life, and the next ten years brought a significant appreciation of art and an impressive art collection that remains to this day.
In the same period I became fascinated by Cree and Ojibway culture. While we collected Aboriginal art, I began reading many of the traditional stories and started teaching some of these fascinating and beautifully illustrated stories to my students. Fifteen years later I learned that my grandmother was Métis. Her mother was Cree. I do not know if she was of the hummingbird clan… and there is no one now who can tell me. But I like to think she might have been.
Two events occasioned the writing of Life In Beauty. I had never considered such a thing until, while walking across the back of a seminar room I had a vision of myself up at the front talking about beauty. My life “clicked” into place and I felt an overwhelming urge to share my vision. Immediately following that experience, my marriage abruptly ended. Two weeks - and several shocking revelations later - I walked out of our home and into a two room apartment. I began my sixtieth year uncertain and alone. Soon I began a deep introspection as I came to grips with the illusion that was my marriage and my life as a wife. My quest for answers came in the form of yoga, spiritual advisors and a book called A Course In Miracles.
My divorce was finalized one year and one month after I walked out the front door of our home. During this time I pursued my vision and began to write…. Six months later I delivered a manuscript to my publisher. What is so amazing - even to me - is that the writing at that time focused on beauty rather than pain. Sitting in front a keyboard in a two room apartment, painful loss manifested itself into awe-inspiring beauty. I consider that to be one of the greatest gifts of my life.
My family physician tells me: “Kate, look at you! You have flowered through this experience.” He is certainly correct. In the two and half years since, I have opened and closed a jewelry studio. I have fallen in and out of love. I have given up 35 pounds. I have written a book. I have buried a father and brought an aging mother to live with me. I have purchased a condo, renovated it and moved out of the city. New friends are appearing and old friends are falling away. My children are interested observers taking all these changes in stride. (Well, that may be pushing it. I do know they have “meetings” in which they talk about “what should we do about mother?”) All in all, I’d say I am doing just fine, maybe even, never better.
As I continue down this journey of life – of turns, surprises, smiles and tears – I can reflect on it and know one thing for sure. It’s the beauty. It’s the beauty that sustains me and nourishes me. It’s the morning sunrise, the delicate flower and the child’s smile that makes me strong, human and continuously filled with compassionate love and curiosity.