“I read in the earliest part of the day before my husband stirs—before the glisten and the grass burns off, before anybody anywhere can suggest a different agenda. I read outside on the old chaise lounge or on the slanted sloping deck, or on my side of the bed. turned toward the breeze and the clean pink morning light. ”

“Gerald Stern’s poetry cures my migraines. It corrects my blood pressure and shakes me clean and clear; it cracks whatever veneer has settled in for whatever reasons veneers always do settle in.”

“I asked her why it mattered that they remain connected. “The meat needs the bone nearby,” she said, “to borrow its richness.””

“I’ve had a huge lifelong package of fear and self-doubt that was waiting to claim me, which I’ve tried rather successfully to keep contained, but now there seemed to be a leak in the vessel.”

“It was like we had dog brains, whatever was right in front of our noses was reality.”

“..the shift in light as summer becomes fall, the most beautiful season, with its gift of beauty in loss, and the promise of something more to come.”

“Soon my own idea of normal began to erode. The floor was tilted under his feet and I began to adjust my gait to his.”

“You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill — more of each
than you have — inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity.”

“By nature, I am a homemaker, a mama bird who loves to busy herself attending to the nest. I guess I take after my mom. She was often flitting around the house, putting lilacs in vases, laying out white tablecloths for her bridge club, and sweeping the floor with exuberance, baking hand-picked blueberry pies, like June Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver. Still, today, my favorite thing is adding beautiful things to my home and developing connections with friends who live nearby. Why then would I pick a man with a passion to travel the world? A rolling stone? —Judy Liautaud

The truth will set you free but not before it has its way with you.—David Foster Wallace

At the start of our relationship, Dave and I live in the Colorado Rockies in a one room cabin with no electricity or running water. We get back to the land and re-think the social conventions I’d been taught during my catholic upbringing. I learn to chop wood, carry coal, and hope that Dave takes note of my hardiness and suitability for his grand plan to travel the world.
In 1971, we leave our cabin in Fraser Colorado to start our travels. We are gone a year and a half travelling by land through Mexico, Central, and South America. Dave and I run into many close calls in our quest for adventure prompted by Dave’s adrenaline junkie nature. We hike through the Colombian jungle with monkeys and snakes, trek to the top of an active volcano in Guatemala, and get stalled at sea on a river boat en route to the Galapagos Islands. In Oaxaca, I have my own struggles with jealousy, and seek comfort in chocolate bars. I question my strong need to please. Eventually I find independence and learn to honor my own comfort zone when it comes to following Dave into dangerous places.”