Missionary to the coffee-deprived,
Seeker of humor in everyday life,
Slave to three 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;
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 three cats (that rule the house). Previously, Bronwyn wrote feature stories and a humorous garden column for the Woodinville Weekly in Woodinville, Washington. A Master Gardener in Washington state, Bronwyn has a fondness for all kinds of plants-excluding pampas grass that causes sneezing fits. She’s happiest when chatting with a friend or family member in a quaint coffee shop; feeding the giraffes at the Phoenix Zoo; or at home writing in her fleecy pajamas.