Missionary to the coffee-deprived,
Seeker of humor in everyday life,
Slave to two cats,
Passionate gardener, writer, traveler, shoe-shopper, lover of walks where the wild things are, like egrets and great blue herons.
How my life calling as a writer began:
I wrote my first novel in the fourth grade, an edge-of-your seat story titled, When Baby Goes A Strollering. I stole the title from a magazine advertisement. My story opens with 10-year-old cub scouts rescuing a baby girl from a burning house. When I showed my novel to my mom, she said, “You’re a writer!”
While still in the fourth grade, I knew I would pursue a writing life the day my classmate Janine Kallenberger said to me with an air of confidence, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a great author!” I couldn’t let her comment go without a response, so I said, “Me too.”
The greatest influence in my life:
My mother, Beverley, instilled in me a joy for words. She encouraged my writing and reading. She prepped me for my weekly spelling tests. When I think back, I see her in my mind…she faced the bathroom mirror while winding her hair in black, brush rollers. During the curler-setting process, she called out my spelling words. “Electricity,” she said. I stood at the open bathroom door and sputtered, “E-l-e (pause)-(um)-k?-t-r-i-c-i-t-y.” Mom would say, “Nope, try again.” And I did until I got it right.
Place I recommend for sponsoring a child who lives in poverty:
Favorite places in the world:
Butchart Gardens in Victoria, B.C.; Merced River in Yosemite National Park (drifting the rapids atop an air mattress); Tuscany; Maui; The Blue Bayou Restaurant at Disneyland; Every library everywhere; Wild Iris Coffee House and Cuppers in Prescott, Arizona, and the San Juan Islands in Washington state.
Favorite places in Phoenix:
The Desert Botanical Garden; Phoenix Zoo; The Arizona Biltmore resort; Liberty Market (which is a restaurant in a 1930s grocery store with too-die-for pancakes on the menu).
Favorite books:
Doing Life Differently by Luci Swindoll; The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom; just about every book Anne Lamott has written.
Favorite blog:
Mine, of course!
Favorite coffee:
Allegro Organic Espresso Sierra (at Whole Foods).
Best coffee I ever had:
At the Sooke Harbour House in Sooke, B.C. and all coffee anywhere in Italy.
Best chocolate:
Salty Dark Chocolate by Hu (at Whole Foods).
Chapter in a book that changed my life:
Romans 12 in the Bible.
The person I can always count on to listen to me, who has my back, who gives me his time and loves me even in the times when he doesn’t feel like it:
My husband Jerry.
Three men whose sense of humor I adore:
My son (who must remain nameless) and my nephew Don. I’m smiling just thinking of these two and their entertaining humor. And Jerry’s funny notes, which I never know where they will appear or when−sometimes they show up in the refrigerator.
My reason for writing a blog:
Cheap therapy
The best decision I ever made
In 1961, the Garden Grove Friends Church, (a stone’s throw from our house), held a youth rally after school. A classmate invited me to go to the rally with her.
A grandfatherly man spoke to the one-hundred or more children in the church sanctuary. He told us about his faith.
As he spoke to us, I understood something I had not realized before. Knowing of Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus.
At ten years old, I walked to the front of the church with about twenty or more other children. I kneeled at the alter and gave my life to Jesus.
In years that followed, I stepped away from God’s will in the effort to control my life on my own. I thought my actions would give me peace. Instead, my actions gave me anxiety. The longer anxiety stayed with me, the more it took control.
When I surrendered my need to control my own destiny and turned it over to God, my life started to heal. I’m in a place of peace today because of the decision I made at the Friend’s Church in 1961.
Bronwyn Wilson currently lives in sunny Arizona with her husband Jerry and two cats (a self-proclaimed princess and her humble sister). Previously, Bronwyn wrote feature stories and a humorous garden column for the Woodinville Weekly in Woodinville, Washington. A Master Gardener, Bronwyn has a fondness for all kinds of plants-excluding pampas grass known to tantalize her allergies. She’s happiest when chatting with a friend or family member in a quaint coffee shop; feeding the giraffes at the Phoenix Zoo; or writing at home in her fleecy pajamas.