Joanna Easton

I Live in the Land of Apples Joanna Easton

As a photographer and a poet, keen experience started early, lingered long, and spawned the ultimate impetus to document the harvest of my perceptions. There is much to tell as my memory is keen and the ride, on the waves of my insights, follows an inner compass formed early and tested deeply. The outer world of home life, learning and mastery, years living abroad, interests and accomplishments dazzle and puzzle me by turns. The memoir follows my detective work, joys, struggles and desire to make sense of the mysteries I feel compelled to understand. I follow the zig-zag path from questions to epiphanies, through study and onto some semblance of sovereignty. Points of reference include: dealing with an inadequate mother; facing the dynamics of a bi-ethnic household; fielding the qualities of a Catholic upbringing and its impact on spirituality and sexuality; and integrating exceptionality, loneliness, difference and strength. My education and career as an Educational Therapist adds the crispness of science, as neurology, psychology, and cognition underpin my career. Motherhood, gardening and yoga soften the edges while physicality and energy enliven the adventure. The range and depth of my inquiry structures the memoir and offers an eclectic, survival map of sorts. There are both photographs and poems woven in with the otherwise, more or less, chronological timeline.