About Me — Regina Clarke

Favorite words: journey, sojourn, encounters, stillness, the unknown

Beginnings

I imagined a pretty specific path for my life early on, a quiet, enclosed kind of life. Think “small town” and uneventful, reading books and playing outside with my friends. This was joy. School was a light, a beacon. I still recall at age twelve opening a book of Latin on the first day of school after Labor Day and the autumn sunlight coming through the classroom window, and seeing the words “Via Appia est” — “This is the Appian Way.” It was exotic, and quite wonderful, and I became immersed in the ancient language.

But it wasn’t the only class that resonated. English literature was a favorite, but so was music, and astronomy. School was a place where I constantly met up with the unknown, new worlds to discover, new voices to hear. I loved it.

I felt a deep happiness in childhood that was always present. When it changed, I was for sure unprepared. A lot of surprises.

The path as an adult has taken me thousands of miles from my original destination (and back again). I have had experiences and seen places I never dreamed I would (including Roswell and Stonehenge). Sometimes it has been SO difficult — yet always, two things have stayed constant. One, the sense of absolute wonder at everything — entering the unknown…