About Anna & This Blog
Who I am, in a pretty little pink and white seashell: Born and bred Californian. Proud Gen X child of the counterculture. Public school educated in Pacific Grove, Davis, and Berkeley, California. Raised my beloved children in San Francisco. Moved to the Oakland hills to be with the trees, my partner, and two naughty cats.
Since 2016 I’ve experienced – as we all have in different ways – a lot of death, loss, and change. I’ve learned that some, at the end of their lives, feel let down – by their own perceived failures, by those closest to them, and/or by expectations they weren’t aware they had. When I was a little girl, heavily influenced by Harriet the Spy, I wanted to become a writer or a detective. In honor of a little girl with plans for the future, I write (and do a little detective work on the side).
As Joan Didion famously said, “I write to find out what I think.” In this time of instability, it’s hard to know what to think and, perhaps more importantly, what to do. Practically speaking, I write to sort my thoughts and put them into action. I’m a big fan of throwing drops into the bucket; I’d love it if, as a result of reading this blog – or for any reason, really – you throw yours in, too.
I want to discover and explore the heart of the beauty and mystery of everything that interests me, even and especially things that hurt. Writing, as intellectual pursuit, is an almost muscular process of finding and stripping away what doesn’t belong, unraveling small knots, creating harmony. It feels good. Part of its deliciousness comes from problem-solving. In a world that can feel bureaucratic and deadening, writing is freedom to pursue excellence and the juicy gratification of having it any way I want. No limits.
This blog is about what it’s always been about: the pleasures and satisfactions of writing, sharing my evolving sense of truth, and doing my best to make the world a more beautiful and functional place.
– AC (Yaya)