Although I live at the beach now, I am really a mountain girl at heart having grown up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  I have fond memories of playing in the mountain streams when I was a little girl and hiking and climbing in the rocks and picnicking after our swim.  That's probably a big reason why I love my second home in Sedona so much.  Sedona is not really a desert as many people think that it is.  It is more a high prairie with mountains all around. It is at 4500' and the beautiful Oak Creek runs down from the mountains above  through the heart of Sedona.  The headwaters of Oak Creek begin at about 5,700' in elevation, in deep escarpments below the edge of the Mogollon Rim of the Colorado Plateau.  It is a valuable perennial stream that flows south to its convergence with the Verde River at approximately 3,200', flowing from the wooded mountains to the upland prairie down below.  Sedona is cradled on the way surrounded by beautiful red rock cliffs.

​Sedona hosts between four million and six million visitors a year and is considered a very special location, both for its physical beauty and its spiritual qualities and it is said to be one of the most beautiful spots in our country.  It draws visitors from all over the world for recreational adventure, emotional relaxation and spiritual enrichment.

We took our grandsons over to enjoy what it offers this summer and they played in the Creek, visited a fish hatchery, enjoyed the ancient Montezuma's well and made friends with giraffes, tigers, African hedgehogs and even a huge anaconda snake at the Out of Africa wildlife reserve.  Watching them play and discover everything took me back to my childhood.  

​Although Oak Creek is classified by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality as an "outstanding" watercourse, it is fragile because of all of the visitors who enjoy it.  I encourage everyone to visit but to be mindful of the fragile resources and to strive to keep the area and especially the Oak Creek clean and unspoiled.  It can be a wonderful trip and a beautiful adventure.

This is a photo that I have on the wall in my office and I enjoy looking at it every day.  Not only is it of my two grandsons whom I love dearly but it also offers something else to me.  It represents the love of any two children sharing together (in this case the open caring of two brothers whom I have never seen fight or even squabble together).  They are very different in personality but very compatible and, although this photo is several years old now, they have maintained their closeness as they are growing up.  

There is another reason that I like the photo so much - It represents, to me, the innocence and joyful nature of childhood...seeing happiness in the simplest of things (in this case just sharing a giggling fit over nothing much) and meeting each day with an openness and welcoming spirit - excited for what the day will bring.  

The boys just recently moved to a new house that sits on a hill with an ocean view.  For the first time they will not be sharing a room together or bunkbeds after 9 years of being together in the same room.  I loved their logic in how they chose which boy would have which room in the new house.  Enzo (the older brother) explained it succinctly - "My room is a little bigger but Huddle has an ocean view so it's fair."  Huddle agreed and it is fair.

Children are so special and they reflect what they are taught.  Raise them with kindness and love and that's how they will see the world.  I just today read about a little girl who is severely hearing impaired and her whole kindergarten class learned sign language in order to be able to include her at school; not because they were told that they had to but because they wanted to. It was the right thing to do and they did it instinctively so they can all play together. 

We, as adults, need to think of children as little sponges soaking up from the pool of what we expose them to.  It's a big responsibility and a wonderful one.  That's why I have chosen to write children's books for the very young; I want to do my best to add positive thoughts to the pool of life that they draw from.  

My wish for all parents, myself included, is to enjoy watching little children play happily together, to learn from them and  to reach out to the world with the same caring attitude that the children exhibit, knowing that they are watching and learning from the "pool of life" that we are creating...