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About Amy, about Sacred Tending
About Me
I am endlessly fascinated and delighted by the mystical experience of the sacred in nature and relationships. People have named me: teacher, seeker, and a letter in "lgbtq", but my favorite is: love ninja!
I love the color purple, smile easily, laugh a lot, and sing poorly and often. I hug trees, recycle, and occasionally may buy something plastic, and then feel guilty about it.
My diverse life journey has shaped my approach to spiritual companionship. Having experienced both privilege and marginalization, abundance and scarcity, I understand how life's complexities can obscure our connection to what gives us life. Whether you're navigating identity, grief, transitions, or seeking deeper meaning, I bring the wisdom of someone who has traveled many different paths.
Personal Journey
Amy is the grandchild of a woman who was proud to trace her lineage from early American Immigrant, Miles Standish, and the grandchild of a woman whose husband's family snubbed her because she was a child of (Slovak) immigrants. She is a child of a novelist and a college professor and has worked as a honey packer, technology trainer, I.T. department manager, OSPIRG canvasser, and has shown up for sit ins, rituals, protests, and door-to-door canvassing for OSPIRG, Take Back the Night, the Great Peace March, Oregon United for Marriage, Equal Marriage New York and many other worthy causes.
She has lived on government cheese and food stamps, gone "back to the land" in rural upstate NY, and driven across the country six times - experiences that taught her resilience and the sacred in unexpected places. As a cancer survivor, she understands how crisis can crack us open to deeper spiritual truths. She is a knitter and loves juvenile science fantasy (both practices in patience and imagination!).
Amy needs quiet alone time to recharge, doesn't much like large parties, but loves getting to know people well.
In October 2012, Amy married the love of her life. Hawthorne usually spends mornings in the garden, works on his novels and rental properties, and concocts amazing gourmet meals. Amy says: "Hawthorne supports me, challenges me, and best of all, plays and laughs with me."
Amy's first 25 years were in Oregon, which means that is home. Her second 25 years were in upstate New York, so that is home as well. In 2019, we moved away from the confederate flags flying in our Portland neighborhood to peaceful Portugal, where we have gotten to know the land and people, and adopted two cats, creating a new adventure and a new home.
CREDENTIALS
Life is a learning experience. Let's celebrate and be grateful for the risks we take, how we fail forward, and when the way forward opens.
A former president of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, I am currently on the steering committee for the UU Spiritual Directors Network and a Program Director at Cherry Hill Seminary.
Teacher of the Year, Cherry Hill Seminary, 2021
Spiritual Direction Supervision Training, Joan Alexander (Lucy Abbott Tucker Training), 2020
Spiritual Direction Supervision Training, Urban Ministries, 2018
Spiritual Direction Training, Namaste (Sister Pat McCrann), 2012
MDiv. Meadville Lombard, 2011
BA, Religious Studies/Gender Studies, Lewis and Clark College, 1986
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