Aiya, My Daughter
Born November 29, 1981 in San Francisco, my daughter Aiya consistently delights me with her existence and way of being.  She completed a Fine Art, Sculpture degree at ASU in December of 2004.  She is currently working at Artworks Foundry and Gallery in Berkeley, California.

Animals I Love
Animals give me great joy and pleasure.  I enjoy watching them, observing them, and interacting with them.  I'm especially interested in the quality and nature of relationships between humans and our close companions for thousands of years, cats and dogs.

Doug, My Husband
I currently live with my husband Doug and our menagerie in Gold Canyon, Arizona.

Family and Friends
I have two older brothers, nieces and nephews, numerous cousins, and a few good friends.  More photos of them are forthcoming.  My beloved mother and dear father are both deceased, but will live forever in my memory.

Dear Mr. Brower (a letter written by my grandmother Lucy Hoffman to her brother Rob's biographer, Mr. Brower, who had asked her for personal recollections of her childhood memories of her brother)

Family Memories (a piece written by me about my mother and grandmother, in response to a request for family memories to include in a publication for the Feland Family Reunion, August 2000)

Hawkland - The Place I Now Call Home

Philosophies I Subscribe to or Admire

Socratic Method
This method strongly influences my teaching style.  Students who do not enjoy discourse on many topics will probably not enjoy my classes, so be forewarned!

Unitarianism/Universalism
A religious movement that stresses the free use of reason in religion,  freedom of individual interpretation, tolerance of diversity, and modification of belief in the light of the discoveries of science.

Deism
Sometimes called  the "natural" religion, this belief system was followed by the first three presidents of the United States.

Locke, English Philosopher
Initiator of the Enlightenment in England and France,  inspirer of the U.S. Constitution, and author of  "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding."

Religious Freedom . . . What Does It Mean?
These pages include excerpts from writings by famous people such as Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Robert Ingersoll, and Quanah Parker on religious freedom and religion in general.

Transcendentalism
A 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.—from Britannica.com

 
As a child I attended Sunday school at a Unitarian church.  This is the only formal religious training I have ever received.  My father was raised in a devout Irish Catholic family; my mother's family members were mostly Agnostic.  My personal religious or spiritual beliefs can best be described as hopeful agnosticism strongly influenced by modern science as well as Unitarian, Buddhist, and Transcendentalist thought.  My personal "bible" is a book called "How to Know God:  The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali," translated with commentary by Christopher Isherwood and Swami Prabhavananda.  The only "church" I attend regularly is Native American sweatlodge.

ZA Dictionary
This is a reverse order dictionary of words that interest me.  It has few entries at the moment, but more will come!