CURRENT MISSION

To help people find calmness, strength and aliveness, even in difficult times

ABOUT ME

I live on the Oregon Coast with my husband Mike on beautiful land surrounded by forest, and near the ocean.We are about 10 miles from Coos Bay, Oregon and we live with 4 dogs, 6 cats, 8 chickens, and many, many trees.I am a slow moving person, like to take my time, and read novels,daydream,flute my harp and flutes, and garden.I work on-call at the local hospital as a psychiatric nurse, and teach mindfulness based stress relief.I have developed a workshop that blends teaching the experience of mindfulness, and deep relaxation, with poetry from around the world, and my original music on harp, flutes,Tibetan Singing bowls, and more. I will be doing my workshop this summer at an Oregon Peace Festival, and a holistic nursing retreat, and will be looking for more places to travel to for sharing my workshop and music in the future.

PHILOSOPHY

To live life in the moment as much as possible, with acceptance of life as it is,living without judgement, and not dragging the past into the present, or excessive worry about the future. I don't always manage to succeed with this philosphy, but it gets better and better every year!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Although I value my quiet time in my forest retreat, I do enjoy occasionally sharing my place with others and showing them around.We have a guest room separate from the house that has a shower, and a primitive toilet around the back of the building.Unless visitors come by car, you would have to visit when I have time to pick you up at the bus station or local airport and drive you around, there is no public transportation to my home.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I did a lot of couchsurfing when I was 18 through about 30, visiting Hawaii, Europe, a lot of travel around California, and Oregon.I've settled down more since then, but have visited Thailand a couple of times, and Bali once, but stayed in hotels.

Interests

Improvising and jamming with other musicians in world beat, new age, folk, blues,mellow Latin Jazz and singer-songwriter.I enjoy cooking healthy,but interesting foods with lots of veges,but not always strictly vegetarian.I love it when others cook for me, or do the dishes! I sometimes enjoy good wine or cocktails, and sometimes take a health break and don't drink at all.I enjoy mystery novels,meeting new people and going to new places, but after a few hours of socializing, I like to go chill out by myself and regroup.I enjoy concerts,discussing what motivates human behavior,psychology.I can appear calm,grounded a little serious and then surprise people by being unexpectedly goofy and earthy.

• cats
• dogs
• chickens
• poetry
• singing
• concerts
• festivals
• cooking
• wine
• cocktails
• vegetarian
• dieting
• drinking
• gardening
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• jazz
• blues
• nursing
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

I love inspiring stories, like The Color Purple, Avatar, except the really violent parts, old English mysteries like Poirot and Miss Marple. I like to watch shows about creativity and talent, like "So You Think You Can Dance", and "American Idol", though on American Idol, the unusual ones that I esp. enjoy get voted off too soon.I read a lot of psychological mysteries, real life adventure travel about other cultures, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

So many things,where to start.It was amazing to actually make it through nursing school.I am very proud of my three music cds, they are really beautiful!(LyndaCole.com.I have participated in so many wonderful festivals,played music with incredible musicians, had spontaneous jam sessions where great music was created on the spot,traveled to so many beautiful places, I could go on and on!

Teach, Learn, Share

I teach mindfulness, how to deal with difficult emotions,healthy diet,gardening, and music