Diane Wyzga, founder of Quarter Moon Story Arts and host of "Stories from Women Who Walk," reveals her multifaceted journey beginning in New Jersey. Inspired by trips to New York with her grandmother and exploring national parks on family vacations, Diane backpacked solo in Europe as a college student, then became a Navy nurse. Leaving that behind for a career as a lawyer and litigator, she is now a storyteller on Whidbey Island, Washington.
Growing up off Exit 109 of the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, Diane Wyzga remembers family vacations as setting the stage for a lifetime of wanderlust. Growing up as the eldest of seven, Diane’s early adventures in state and national parks sparked a passion for exploration that never faded. Join me as I chat with Diane, founder of Quarter Moon Story Arts, and we navigate her multifaceted journey from Navy nurse to lawyer, and now a storyteller on Whidbey Island and host of the daily podcast "Stories from Women Who Walk."
The episode unfolds with tales of youthful independence and the courage to chart one's path. Childhood memories of collecting S&H Green Stamps for camping gear with Diane’s family are the precursor to a love for hiking and a life marked by exploration. Diane's story of trekking the Camino de Santiago as a transformative milestone resonates as Diane reminisces about her backpacking adventures across Europe. With a trusty travel guide and a heart full of optimism, Diane’s early journeys reveal an enduring spirit of adventure.
--------- HIGHLIGHTS ---------
0:02:33 - Childhood Travel Memories and Green Stamps
0:06:23 - Life-Changing Outdoor Adventures
0:11:19 - Life Divided
0:16:57 - Backpacking Across Europe Without Set Plans
0:23:02 - From Backpacking Europe to Navy Service
0:30:35 - Trips to New York City
0:39:59 - Last Hope Island and Diane's Polish Heritage
0:46:26 - Camino del Santiago: Encouraging Note From a Friend
0:55:48 - Granny D's Inspiring Journey Across America
Contact Info & Links
Quarter Moon Story Arts: https://www.quartermoonstoryarts.net
E-mail: info@quartermoonstoryarts.net
Stories From Women Who Walk with daily 60 Seconds podcast:
https://stories-from-women-who-walk.simplecast.com/
Diane as “Wyzga on Words” on Substack:
https://dianewyzga.substack.com/?utm_source=global-search
Diane on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/diane-f-wyzga-QMSA
Moving Along - ep. 24 - Diane Wyzga
Christi: [00:00:00] Moving up, moving out, moving along. Where are you headed next? I'm Christi Cassidy, your host and the creator of moving along a podcast about travel. Relocation and life transitions. Listen in to real life stories as we explore moving along and what it takes to make your life a positive new adventure.
Welcome to Moving Along. Today my guest is Diane Wyzga. She is a storyteller and founder of Quarter Moon Story Arts, where she helps women craft their own origin stories. She has a background as a Navy nurse, speaker, educator and lawyer. She writes WGA on words. A [00:01:00] Substack and his host of stories from women who Walk a 62nd daily podcast that once you get hooked, watch out because it is a worthwhile listen every day, at least during the week, not on the weekends.
Diane lives on Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest, and that's where I got curious how she ended up there. Going from where she was to where she is now, and so here we are. Welcome Diane.
Diane: Thank you so much, Christi. It's a delight to share the mic with you, and thank you for listening to the podcast episodes.
I write so many of them for myself in the hope that someone listening will go, what? You too. I thought I was the only one. So I'll keep going.
Christi: Definitely keep going. And [00:02:00] you've been doing this for, I think five years. Thank you. Yeah,
Diane: five years. And you and I both came up, uh, the ranks through akimbo. Yeah, via kimbo workshops and that's where we learned which side of the mic to speak into and, and how to do fun stuff like this.
So I'm delighted to share the mic with a fellow podcaster woman person so that we can be gifts to our listeners.
Christi: Thank you. So Diane, because this podcast is about travel relocation and life transitions, and I know you know something about. Each one of those elements. I wanted to ask you, you grew up off exit 1 0 9 on the Garden State Parkway.
Mm-hmm. Down to shore. Mm-hmm. As they say. And I wondered what did travel and moving mean to you when you were a child?
Diane: Oh, cool question. No one's ever [00:03:00] asked me that before, huh? Well, I will tell you that I'm the oldest of seven kids, and when you have that size family, you are going to go on vacation. To state and national parks where you can camp, and that means having a tent.
So in the early days, in the early days, everything that we needed, my dad was able to rent from the place that he worked. And so we had, you know, kind of skanky sleeping bags. We had a Coleman stove and a Coleman Lantern. And we really didn't have a tent, so we were in the station wagon, meaning you put you on the back.
But the, the bug to, to camp and to travel never left my parents. And that was curious [00:04:00] because growing up, as they did in the generation that they did in the place that they did, they really didn't have opportunities to go on vacation and, and to travel. So for them, I think this whole experience was a, a pilgrimage and an exploration for them as much as it was for us.
And as time went by. Now, you might not remember this, but maybe some of your listeners do. There used to be something at least on the east coast called green stamps, and every time you went to the supermarket. Depending on how much, see, you're nodding your head yes. You know, depending on,
Christi: yeah. S hamp, SH, green stamps,
Diane: and you'd get, depending on how much your groceries were, you'd get a certain amount of green stamps and you'd, and you would paste those into these little booklets.
And then you would go to s and h, green Stamp Redemption centers, and you could trade in your booklets of stamps for. For, what's the word I want? What's the word I [00:05:00] want? Stuff you could get. Stuff. Stuff. And so there were summers, I remember sitting at the kitchen table with a sponge and water gluing these things into these books.
And over time we got a sleeping bag for everybody and our own Coleman stove and our own Coleman Lantern and, and, and a tent. And that tent slept nine people. We filled it out gradually, but I do remember four on each side in sleeping bags and down the middle was a baby in a crib. And we went all over.
All over New England. All over New England. And if there was something to see because it was the house of a former president, or there was a plaque commemorating something, or there was a covered bridge, my mother would take us there. I mean, she was the one who knew that stuff. My dad. He was happy to be [00:06:00] informed about those things, but he wasn't the seeker outer of those things.
However, he was a photographer, and so as we hiked, which we did a lot of because, Hmm, that's free. My mom would point out, you know, flowers and things and he would take pictures of them, and so that, that experience, you know, I, I, I was probably maybe eight. Maybe eight when they first had the idea of packing up the station wagon and heading into the Poconos on an absolutely miserable, miserable, miserable thunderstorm and rainy weekend.
And here we're, you know, you remember the weather Well, yes, because there was a couple that was in the next campsite over and they felt sorry for the kids. So they invited us three kids into their tent so that we could, you know, warm up and have something to eat, leaving my parents in the car. So that early [00:07:00] experience.
That early experience of being introduced to things that you know, that were different from New Jersey. And I will say that of the seven children, six of us went to college in New England. That was where my parents intended to retire, but my mom died early and they didn't get a chance to live that out.
But that became such an impressionable, lifelong opportunity for us that e each of us still camps, each of us still hikes, each of us is introduced, loved ones to all of that. And I believe that that really did instill in me. A desire to see the world differently, to go out there and backpack and hike and hang out with the locals and try things like Outward Bound where you, you know, you backpack in the [00:08:00] Rockies with a bunch of women experience avalanches in cold weather.
So that's, I just, that is an absolutely wonderful question. Wonderful, wonderful question. I can see you. Going all over and asking people that one question and opening up the doors to stories that maybe they had forgotten. Because until you asked me, I didn't put two and two together. And that's exactly, that's exactly how it started.
I. You're brilliant. Thank you.
Christi: Thank you. I mean, do you think that there's a straight line really from those early trips, right? And the hiking that you were hiking in the Poconos, you were hiking presumably in the Catskills. The Adirondacks. Right. Is that pretty much what you were doing and all the way forward to stories from women who Walk, which is the title of your podcast?
Diane: Another great [00:09:00] question. I don't think there is as much a straight line as there is a meandering one, much like you would find in the woods and. The, mm-hmm. A, A trail. A trail. That's exactly, that's the word we're looking for a trail. Yes. So I do remember a friend of mine who was part of the storytelling troop that I had, had relocated back to Canada, and she said, you know what?
There's this guy, Seth, Seth Godin, and he's got this workshop on podcasts, and I thought you might be interested in maybe looking into it. So as we've said, yes, we both did, and we were both stunned by the idea that on day one you had to have a title, an idea, an audience, et cetera, and. I wasn't prepared for that.
And so I said, okay, well I know stories 'cause I'm a storyteller. I'm a woman. Got that and I walk, [00:10:00] so I'm gonna call it stories from women who walk. It had alliteration and it gave me room to interview guests my first year. Covid happened. We weren't doing the guest thing as much as we were 'cause we were weren't in our cars Pivot 60 seconds.
But that's how it started. And the photo, the cover art is a selfie that I took as I was walking out of Orizon in France to go over the Pyrenees into Spain as part of the communal pilgrimage. So. Very definitely there is a trail from those early days of camping, and I'm telling you this is how early, how early days it was.
I mean, you didn't need to make a reservation. And I think some of those campsites were like. $3 a night. Now, of course there were outhouses. Mm-hmm. You didn't have all these big bathrooms and everything, [00:11:00] but hey, you know what doesn't kill you? Makes you stronger.
Christi: That's for sure. I mean, it's a little bit more rustic back in the day.
That's true. Yeah. It's the Camino de Santiago. At what stage did you decide to do that? Because that, to me seems almost like the keystone in this arc. That is, that is your story. That
Diane: is, am I close? Well, you're not only close, you're, you're spot on is Steve Heatherington and our other friends across the pond would say Yes.
What makes that absolutely. Spot on is because I say that the Camino, my life, my life is ac, BC and ac. My life is BC and AC before Camino and after Camino. The Camino was, is the dividing line in in my life. It's just, it just separates it [00:12:00] in a way that nothing else. To that time ever did. And to this day, not a, not a day goes by, I don't think of it, refer to it, draw something from it.
The screensaver on my computer are all the photos I took. So I'm constantly, I. Back on the path again. So I'm curious, how did you, how did you come up with that description? What is it about, how did you know to say
Christi: that? It just, I don't know. I was just thinking of an arch and I thought this seems to be the center of it and your story.
I know you work with women on their own stories and when you and I first talked, I. Wasn't so sure I was interested in certain parts of your story, but actually I kind of am now that you give me this, this basis coming from New Jersey and [00:13:00] traveling around in the station wagon with your parents camping as a kid, and it does seem we keep going the Outward Bound.
You said you hiked around after did after college, right? You. Did you backpack?
I did.
Diane: When I graduated college, I did, I had a borrowed backpack and I had a, uh, book that was very popular then called Let's Go Europe. It was big. Remember that? Let's
Christi: go. I remember. Let's go. Yeah. So I had that,
Diane: I had a ticket. I think, I think I left from Kennedy International Airport pretty sure back in the day when everybody could come to the jetway and wave you off. You know, I still have memories of looking back and seeing my family there. So, yeah, and the only, now think about it, it was an idea that had come up with a friend in college.
He was a year younger than I. And my parents said, well, yeah, okay, that sounds like [00:14:00] something. You can do we think. Even though there's no cell phones and you'll just be able to get in touch with us by postcard. So they said, okay. I think part of the reason that they did is because I had a friend who had graduated a year ahead of me.
They loved him to death. He was on his way to law school and he had spent a year I. In England, I think at Cambridge or Oxford, can't remember. And he said, oh yeah, don't worry about her and I'll make sure she meets one of the barristers. It'll be totally cool. Well, at the last minute, Jeff's mother pulled the plug on this and said, you ain't gonna go.
Like, okay, well, and so I did, I went, and that's a testament to my, my parents, who were willing to say, well, we've taught her everything that she knows. You know, you've probably heard this. Maybe your mom said it to you. I can lead you around by the nose until you're 21, and then after that you're on your own.
Christi: No, no, they
Diane: didn't. Oh. I'm sure there's a listener out there going, yeah, my mother [00:15:00] did. So that's where, so I did, so I had an idea of the places I wanted to visit. So I started in England, and then I went across the channel and I was in Holland. Mm-hmm. And Luxembourg. And
Christi: had you saved your money or did they, your parents give you some money to do this?
Diane: No, but I had saved, now see, you know, back then you're, I mean, you're living on the cheap and the plan was to, you know, go to dormitories in. Colleges that were closed for the summer or go to hostels. And so hostels, yeah, it didn't, it didn't take very much. But I will tell you that I borrowed a wee bit of money from each of my brothers and sisters, like $25 here, $30 there.
I paid 'em all back when I got back. It was a collective experience. My parents didn't fund this at all, although they were responsible for helping me find the backpack And I went, the only thing about it that was a little bit sketchy was that I didn't have a locked in return date.
No one did back [00:16:00] then. I mean, we were all backpacking across Europe and no one did. No. And the last couple of days I was holed up in Heathrow, along with a bazillion other Americans trying to get home. But that's what you did. I mean, you just hung out there until a flight was available and then you got to go home.
Again, the thing that I, I think I want to remember the most is that at a time when there weren't cell phones and there wasn't Zoom, and we were relying on postcards and hoping you knew where the US Embassy was, that my parents were willing to say, okay. And once they said, okay, I was willing. To start and to go.
Christi: Within about the last week, I read something somewhere. Somebody's like, oh, I just wanna go on vacation for a week with no cell phone. And I thought, oh, that's brave of you. Because I mean, we don't take American [00:17:00] Express Travelers checks with us anymore. We don't, you know, we just rely on all this electronic, you know, whatever to get where we're going and just.
Uh, forget Google Maps. The ATMs alone have made travel to Europe and, and elsewhere in the world. Very different experience from back then.
Diane: Yeah. When I, when I walked the Camino, you could go to an ATM, you know, and get whatever euros that you needed and our devices. We have become very reliant on our devices.
I will share with you that for the most part, I maintain a device free weekend zone rule, which means no computer, no device, and my family knows it. And you know, God forbid something happens, maybe they would send up a flare and say you've gotta come home. But it is, it is soul saving. [00:18:00] It is because we are just so attached and so focused, and once we get in there and we start to scroll, you know, it's like our thumbs have a mind of their own.
Yeah. So I would say to your listeners that if someone has the idea of parting company with their device for a time, you know, start small. You know, you're, you're weaning yourself off of it instead of going cold Turkey. But yeah, to have that weekend free, and there are times when I break it because if I haven't recorded the podcast in time, then you know, I'm stuck on a Saturday.
But by and large, there's a lot of freedom. There's a lot of freedom with it and permission. And when you get back to it, you realize. You didn't miss anything. I mean, you just didn't, or not too much anyway. I mean, [00:19:00] yeah, no, I'm just curious, have you ever entertained the idea of putting your, your device under a pillow somewhere and just leaving it there for a long winter's nap?
Oh,
Christi: I would love that. I would love that. And I do still have a landline, although it. Tends to be a little wonky. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I do, the phone calls tend to be on the weekends, but I would love to. Would I love to. I probably would love to. 'cause I know at night sometimes I'm just like, enough enough.
I'm gonna watch tv. I'm going to do something totally mindless, and I turn off the phone at like, yes, seven o'clock at night. I'll be like. Maybe somebody's trying to call me. Oh, horrors and of course, inevitably. Nobody tried to call me. Well, let's
Diane: throw it out there as a challenge to you and your listeners.
Just find a time where you could just put it [00:20:00] under a pillow and let it go for a long winter's nap. And it doesn't have to be long. I, I will tell you that I usually turn mine off at six o'clock at night. And I'll turn it back on in the morning and then mm-hmm. I give it its own Shabbat on Friday night, you know, once it's sunset here, that, and, and then turn it back on again.
But I would love for your listeners to pick it up as a challenge and get back in touch with you and say. Yeah, interestingly enough, I, I was able to do this and it worked
Christi: and, okay, so then the corollary to that is you should give this to your listeners too, or you could give this
Diane: to Oh, I will, because as I do with every podcast opportunity, I have to share the mic.
I showcase it on an upcoming motivate Your Monday. So all my listeners will get an opportunity to hear the two of us chatter, and yes, that will be their challenge as well. [00:21:00]
Christi: Perfect. Mm-hmm. That's perfect. So the travel bug bit when you were young and then you go off on your own. I think that's very brave.
Even at age, whatever, 20 something to not go with like a friend, you know? And you had a friend, but then the friend couldn't go. Yeah. 'cause his mother said no. Um. I know well, Hmm. Well, really, and sometimes you would think that the girl's mother would be more, you know, hesitant, but no, I even
Diane: know his name, but I'm not gonna say it out loud.
No say,
Christi: but from there, wait, talk to me about, so somewhere from there to the Navy.
Diane: Oh, I was, I was a naval officer. I was a lieutenant, yes. I was a Navy nurse and, um, took care of children. So I was a pediatric nurse and I did, so I let, I graduated from college. I had just turned 21 and went off to [00:22:00] backpack Europe.
And when I came back. I had a little bit of a reprieve before I had to show up in the Naval, base in Rhode Island, coldest winter that they had had in a bazillion years. The wind coming off of the Narraganset Bay was. Frigid and we were out marching in high heels and, and pantyhose. So, and I did that.
I chose the Navy after I graduated because my dad and several of my uncles had served in the Navy in World War II and I knew I had, a choice of becoming a floor nurse somewhere, but this. Presented another opportunity. I mean, why do, why do the same thing everybody else is doing if you don't have to?
Right. I mean, you're being a podcaster, not everybody else is, is a podcaster. Yeah. And so I said, all right, that's the direction that I'm gonna go [00:23:00] in. I'm gonna become a naval officer, I'm gonna become a Navy nurse. And I will tell you that those three years of my life were some of the most fulfilling.
Why was that?
Well, because not only was taking care of children, and that in itself is, is a whole nother conversation, but you're serving your country. I mean, you, you're, you know, you're, you're showing up and saying, for this period of time in my life, I'm gonna serve. Country and part of the service came from holding up the roof for the mostly mothers who were bringing their children into the hospital because dad was deployed.
And so you've got everything going on. I mean, we were the largest pediatric facility on the East Coast, so we saw. Everything. I saw more situations involving [00:24:00] children. In my three years than many of my colleagues would've seen in the course of their entire career because they were coming from all over and everywhere.
And so when you have moms coming in with a child who's got a diagnosis of leukemia or a lymphoma or has had a tragic accident flying a kite with a wire that got held up on a a telephone. Now and telephone wires and was electrocuted,
Christi: oh,
Diane: you're there for the children, of course, but you're also there for the parent because the parent is the one holding up the roof themselves.
So there's a great deal of responsibility in that and, and you're working with other men and women who have chosen this, this way to be. So I have a lot of respect, a a lot of respect for the military and for military service, [00:25:00] and plus, the Navy has the coolest uniforms.
Christi: I will, I will say yes to that. How do you, how do you know that many Fleet Week moments?
On the streets of New York, you always see the all the Navy people dressed in their whites. It's always fun. How do I know that? Well, how'd you
Diane: know that they have the best uniforms? And you just said
Christi: Fleet Week? Yeah, in New York, that's for sure. And for your listeners
Diane: who don't know what Fleet Week is.
Christi: That's when all the Navy people come to New York and walk around in their, in their navy whites. But no, the best, the best, the best encounter I ever had with, with during Fleet Week was I had walked over from Publishers Weekly where I was working with an older. Woman who is, she is like did operations and stuff for publishers Weekly.
She was really the boss's right hand in many ways. And she had worked [00:26:00] corporate, big corporate as you know, executive assistant types of things before coming back to work with George at Publishers Weekly and smaller. I mean, I think we are 50 people there. So we had to do this dinner and George had given me the responsibility for setting things up, but I didn't know anything about doing stuff like this.
And so, so this person came with me and, and we were walking, we walked all the way over to the river and we were walking on the way back to 23rd street and there were two very fine ladies. Standing there in their skirts and the pumps and the stockings. And this was only, I mean, this was maybe five years ago.
And looking just in the hats, the hats are really great. Right? That's, and they were standing on the street corner in the West Village, and I knew immediately why they were there. And I'm sure my colleague did too. [00:27:00] And my colleague was. Black and these two women were black. And here we are in the West Village, like about a stone's throw from Stonewall and, and my colleague just glanced at the two of them and said, hello ladies.
And they looked up and they said, hello. And it was just this. Mutual, uh, connection. Like we knew why they were in the village. Right? They were, uh, they were away from Times Square and where a lot of the Fleet Week people all, all the, yeah, well, all the NA Navy visitors hung out. But we knew why they were there and they saw us in the middle of the day and it was quiet because, you know, it was the middle of the day, but it was just a moment of connection and it was really nice.
Just kind of like, welcome, welcome to our city. Welcome to the West Village. Welcome to the West Village. It meant something to them and it meant something to us. So nice. What a lovely
Diane: story. What [00:28:00] an absolutely lovely story. Yes, and And it didn't take much, did it? I mean, you smiled at them, you and your colleagues smiled at them.
They smiled at you. It was a hello and a connection was made, and none of you knows the other. Or would even recognize the other if you stumbled over him in the street, and yet that experience is coming to life again in the story that you're telling me about it.
Christi: Funny. Huh? Did you come to New York during Fleet Week?
Diane: Not during Fleet Week, no. But taking the train into New York was definitely an excursion, and that started early too, with a grandmother who would gather a couple of us together and we would take the train in and we would go to Madison Square Garden. We would go to Rockefeller Center. Mm-hmm. [00:29:00] Rockefeller Center is where the tree is.
Madison Square Garden. We would go to see the Rockettes, and I remember that Radio City music hall, and she was a great one for walking and not that she remembered where she was going or why she was going. And so there were neighborhoods that we walked through, you know, with, uh, butchers and, and big old things hanging in the window that were dead and.
And we'd eventually figure out where we were going or she would figure out where we were going. But the thing that I remember most about those wanderings is that she would eventually take pity on us and we could get, we would get one of three things. We could go to the hor and hard art. And put your little money in the window and pull that open.
I know your listeners will have to go and watch a Doris Day movie in order to remember what that's all about. But you could go to a horn and hard art and, and what you wanted to eat was on a little shelf behind a glass window, and you'd [00:30:00] put your coins in to the slot and you'd open up the glass window and you'd pull out whatever it was.
That you wanted to eat, so we could do that. Or depending on the time of day, we could go to get an orange Julius. I don't know if they still do that. Oh, or the last thing. Street vendors. Street vendors that sold roasted peanuts, salted roasted peanuts, and they came in a red and white striped box. We were allowed to get those.
So again, the, the travel, the travel aspect of exploring and going to places or parts of the city where you wouldn't normally get lost. We didn't
Christi: and is a pretty worldly city. I wonder if it's part of what fueled your wanderlust?
Diane: Um, I think it did. Hers, I do. All of my grandparents are immigrants. I. All of them [00:31:00] come from Poland.
Christi: I wondered
Diane: and coming as they did from where they did, they didn't have much opportunity to explore, and my maternal grandmother probably was the most adventurous. Of the four that I got, you know, two on each side. And she was the one who would just say, okay, well, you know, we're taking the train and, and there we go.
And we did. And maybe that's why she stopped in St. Pat's Cathedral, you know, before we set off so that there was a prayer. Somebody keep an eye on these, get 'em back. Okay. But she was also, I remember she took us to Washington, DC. I was all of about, maybe in sixth grade, she and, and my sister and, and I went and all over, I remember she wore these gr green like head [00:32:00] sneakers.
She wasn't sophisticated at all, but she knew what she wanted and she would go for it and invite us to come along with her. So I, I think maybe it just, I think maybe it runs in the family. Well, who do you have in your family that's like that I.
Christi: Oh, wow. Hm. That's hard. It could be me. It could be my sister, but yes.
Yeah, there's always somebody and there's always somebody who wears the sneakers when they're, when they're traveling. The green kids. I'm like, you
Diane: can see it, huh?
Christi: My sister arranged for my parents to get a tour of the White House. When Obama was in his second term, and my sister lives in DC and works with environmental causes.
Anyway, that's neither here nor there. But she arranged for them to get a tour of the White House. And I said to my mother, okay, what are you wearing? What are you wearing? And then I said, okay, shoes, mom, shoes. [00:33:00] She said, well, I have to wear, you know, I have to wear these shoes that I'm like, and then some part of me thought, you know what?
It's okay. It's okay if she wears the orthotic, like the white sneaker things in the White House. It's okay.
Diane: Comfort over cosmetics. I'm telling you, the minute you hit middle earth rage, comfort, and who's gonna be looking at her shoes?
Christi: Well, that was my mother's. But, uh, you have expressed my mother's thoughts perfectly.
Yeah, well this time. And they had a wonderful time doing it too. God bless them. Mm. That's so, that's so great. It's like to have somebody like that in your family who will just whisk you away and you, it's not your parents, it's somebody else, you know, who will like, encourage that. And then so. Okay, so then you were in the Navy.
Oh, I mean, I just wanna say that it's quite a feat becoming a nurse. That's not a small thing to become a nurse. Oh,
Diane: thank [00:34:00] you for that. And I will say, once a nurse, always a nurse. But I, I perhaps what it is that we admire in someone else. We don't look as with the same affection on our own accomplishments and think about how did we get to where we are?
What did it take to be working, where we're working in the ways that we're working to be of use in the world? Because I, I know I look at others and think, wow, that's, that's pretty cool. How come I didn't do that? Yeah, right.
Christi: Is it too late for me to try
Diane: that? Well, yes, it's, in some cases it's better off. I don't, you know, I can sing in the shower, but I'm not gonna go to the Met.
That's just all there is to it. You have to realize what your limitations are. Doesn't mean that you shouldn't push against them, but at some point in time you have to realize that. Yeah, that's, [00:35:00] that's not for you. Do something else.
Christi: Have you been to Poland? Have you seen where your family's from?
Diane: No, I. I keep coming back to that.
My brother and sister-in-law and their children who were grown, who were adults some years back because, uh, one of their married children was, had some, uh, were, was spending some time in England and so they all met up and then took the channel over and had time there. During Christmas in a Polish family is really important and they got to meet dad's cousin, son and his son.
So three generations and given the state of the world right now and drawn more to that place and to history of that place and what is going to. Go on in terms of the [00:36:00] security of not only Ukraine, but Moldova and the Balkans and Poland, and whether I will be afforded the opportunity to go and walk around in the land of my people, or I just have to work on the genealogy.
Of my family is yet to be seen. I will say for those of your listeners who are kind of at crossroads about things to be paying attention to the moving a long part that if there's something that you want to do and you can do it, then do it because there's no guarantee that. You have the time later.
Later, and, and that seems to me to be a thought that [00:37:00] recurs more and more now that I am in middle earth age. If I can do something now, let's do it. Now, and I am in beyond grateful for the opportunities that I have had, and maybe there will be a chance to put my feet down in the soil of my ancestors.
Christi: Poland is very interesting. I mean, we've all seen Fiddler on the roof and you know, and we know what happened. My fourth grade teacher was Polish and she explained to us fourth graders what happened at the end of the war with Stalin coming and dividing their country in half. And at that point, I had not seen Fiddler on the roof, but she explained.
She explained it real good and with a map on this. On the wall. I mean, it wasn't that far removed from the end of World War ii, so it was, it was still fresh in her mind and we all learned it from her.
Diane: Well, Poland has a history of being sliced and [00:38:00] diced over hundreds of years, depending on whoever was in power.
And there's a wonderful book out called Last Hope Island. It's by Lynn Olson, O-L-S-O-N. And. England was regarded in World War II by the pilots as the Last Hope Island because if they could come back from their sorties and land, then they had a chance. It was their last hope they had to get back there.
And what I didn't realize when I read the book, and I've read it a couple times now because it's captivating to me, is that the Polish Air Force pilots. Were the ones who taught the RAF to fly. The RAF didn't know from nothing.
Christi: Oh, and these
Diane: handsome, dark-haired, blue-eyed boys came over from Poland and they were the ones who taught them how to fly.
They were the ones who were the beginnings of the [00:39:00] RAF. And yes, when the end of the war. Came about, Poland was thrown under the bus as a form of appeasement. Both Roosevelt and Churchill said, well, you know what? Somebody's gotta go and it's gonna be you, Poland. And even the Polish soldiers that had fought in the war were banned from marching in the victory parades in London thereafter.
And so. Wow. To ignore history is to not be aware of what's happening again in front of us. And I'm just, I'm just gobsmacked to hear this memory of yours. Something very important must have happened for your fourth grade teacher to take the time to explain. What was going on? What had gone on in her country, and for you to bring that up again, because being aware, [00:40:00] being aware of our history, being aware of the factual basis of our history is key to knowing not only where we came from, but where we might be going.
So thank you for that Walk down memory lane.
Christi: Well, thank you. And, uh, let me, you have a pilot's license, don't you? Where
Diane: did you learn that? Who have you been talking to long, long ago. Long, long ago, and far, far away? Yes. When I was in graduate school, there was a flying club. And I thought, well, shit, I've always wanted to fly.
Let's give this a go. Let's give it a go. And I did learn how to fly. I managed to land the plane just about in front of a united jet that was taking off. Uh.
Long story bounced across that [00:41:00] grass. It, yeah, well it wasn't my fault, it was a crosswind and, um, small, it was a little two-seater Cessna, and I wasn't prepared for the crosswind that was lifting the wing. Kind of what happened to that delta flight that did a, a 180 and landed upside down in Toronto. The winds came and flipped it around.
Anyway, yes, I did. I've not maintained it since then, but it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun.
Christi: What. Possessed you to decide to do the walk the at the Camino Dego.
Diane: Honestly, I was called to do that. I had seen the movie The Way with Martin Sheen and didn't really think much of it, and it was a good movie, but I really didn't think much of doing the Camino and some months after.
Seeing that movie every time I turned around, and I love books. Love, love, love, love, [00:42:00] love, love, love books. Reading books is like dreaming with your eyes open and seeing that movie, there were books that just appeared to me about walking, walking the Appalachian Trail, walking the Vermont Trail, just walking and.
They also were connected by the theme of pilgrimage, of doing something of use. And all I can say, and other people who have walked the Camino will say the same thing, that they were called to do it. There was something, there's something you can't explain. I. And I made the decision, okay, I was gonna do this, and I think I had about six months to get ready.
I wasn't doing a lot of walking. I was in the gym. I was doing spin class, but I wasn't doing walking. And so I had to, you know, cobble things together like a backpack and a sleeping bag and things that I just didn't have to hand. But the most important thing was finding someone to stay in the house, because [00:43:00] at that time I had three kitties and.
It's not like you can have somebody come in and just throw some food at 'em every day. And so I found somebody and about a week or so before I was supposed to leave, she backed out. And I was just, I was, I found someone else and I just knew, I just knew that that was where I was supposed to go, however paired as I thought I was and ready and I had all this background and I've done this before and I'm gonna go and this is gonna be okay.
And I've got my guidebook and I really don't know exactly where I'm gonna end up, but I know I'm gonna. Start in St. John Pia deport and I'm gonna end up in Santiago. That's what I knew. And on the plane, uh, coming to Madrid, I looked out at Spain and I said, uh, no. Stupid, dumb, foolish. Ain't gonna do it. [00:44:00] No how, no way.
I'm going, a baggage claim. I'm getting through customs and I'm getting the next flight back home again. And I had made it my mind. Because whatever courage I had, I figured I'd spent on all my other excursions. I was outta courage. I was outta courage. I used my allotment of courage and I had read as I was getting ready to, you know, pack up all my things into the, the little backpack that I brought on board with me.
There was a note from a friend of mine, a storytelling friend of mine that I had put in the guidebook. And because we had time left before we were landing, I figured I'd read it and the front of the card said, well done. And her note inside read, you're probably wondering why I began with well done. And that's because no matter what happens from this moment out, you showed [00:45:00] up and that was well done.
And it was funny because in the note she said, you're probably reading this, you know, 10,000 feet in the air. I'm thinking, how the hell does she know where I'm reading this? And I didn't decide that minute it, it wasn't like, you know, a movie, oh, I get the, you know, I get the burning bush and the voice coming out of it.
But it was her belief in not that I would finish, but that I had gotten myself this far. And that was okay regardless of, she said, regardless of what happens from here on out, you showed up and that was well done. And I think it was that, that there was permission you could leave if you want to leave. And if you don't wanna leave and you wanna continue, then that's okay too.
And so by the time I got to baggage claim, I had decided, all right, well. Screw it. I'm here. You know, may as [00:46:00] well may as well just do it. I showed up. You showed up, so I may as well keep going. And, and there is that, that in these moving along sessions of yours, I imagine that a theme is that someone came along at a point in someone's life and gave them that, that permission or encouragement or support.
That said, no matter what happens from here on out, you showed up and that's well done. And so I, you know, I, I think that there's a, a strong desire. For many women to just get out there and move along to transition to find something new, get out of the crossroads and, and go left or right or straight. And oftentimes what is the, you know, the, the boot on the butt is someone saying, I [00:47:00] believe in you, regardless of what happens from here on out.
Well done.
Christi: What a lovely sentiment and. I, I do think you find those things Oh, yeah. When you're meant to find them. Those little notes mm-hmm. Tucked in the book or whatever it is. Yes. Was this before, after you had kind of gone through a bit of a nadier, hadn't you? You've lost your mom and
Diane: divorce. Oh gosh.
How much research has my family been given you? Yes. Within the space of nine months, I think within the space of nine months, I lost my mom. She had gotten cancer and it was misdiagnosed. So she died really early. The firm that I was with, the law firm that I was with sold itself out from underneath us, and so most of the associates were left high and dry while it merged with something much larger.
And then my used to be husband, Hmm, did what some [00:48:00] husbands do. And so in the space of nine months, I lost those three grounding points. Now, maybe I called this on myself because there was a moment in time where I said, you know what? I'm just sick and tired of the way things are. I could use a clean slate.
And the universe being as benevolent as it is, said, well, all right, I can arrange that. Let's see what you do with this girl.
Christi: There's 500 miles, take it or leave it.
Diane: And, and so like so many other things, um. In our life that look hard or impossible or ugly or difficult at the outset, and yet somehow get turned around.
That's what happened here too. And so I started a [00:49:00] litigation consulting firm. I dove head first into. Story work. I did podcasting. Like you. I left a place where I had been living for 20 years and washed up on the shores of Whidby Island. So not overnight, of course, but
Christi: over
Diane: time.
Christi: And that's where you are now.
Diane: I am Whidby Island in the great state of Washington.
Christi: It is a beautiful place.
Diane: Remind me, have you been here? Ooh, yes,
Christi: I have. Yeah.
Diane: Okay, well, the door's always open. I'll keep a podcast burning in the window for you.
Christi: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that's great. That's great. It is, it is beautiful. My partner's sister and brother-in-law live in Tacoma.
Oh, okay. And so we, like, every now and then we get to go to, we pop into Seattle and then go around and see them [00:50:00] and or down to Oregon, wherever. So well, should the winds
Diane: be blowing you this way, the door is always open. We have good pie here, as you know.
Christi: Good. I expect only the best
Diane: and I've got the Wi Be 15 is proof of how good that pie is
Christi: first.
Oh yeah. I never heard that one. The 15 like that. Well, you've seen the signs
Diane: that, that when I first moved here, the Seattle Seahawks, I think jerseys have the number 12 on them, and that's because it represents the 12th player on the field who is actually all of the fans. If I've got the story right.
Christi: Ah,
Diane: so I've just adopted that and said it used to be the Whidby 12.
Now it's become the Whidby 15. So, but fortunately the November to May Rain Festival is coming to a close and I'll be out able to get out there and walk it off. One hopes
Christi: battle off the mud. The, so I know our time is getting a little short here, but the Camino, did you [00:51:00] understand it at the time to be the life changer that it was?
Diane: Absolutely not. I didn't have the burning bush, you know, appear on the on the way with a voice coming out of it and saying, this is what your life should be. For the most part, I felt like I made a really bad pilgrim. I wasn't getting the signs. I remember a woman who I walked with on and off, depending on where we caught up with each other.
On the path. She said that she doesn't believe that the Camino transforms you, but that it enlarges you. And I've always liked that. I've always liked that expression. And when you go to the mass in the, in the cathedral and there's a mass for pilgrims, the priest giving the sermon said Your Camino actually begins when you leave here and you go home.
Because you've got to think about how will you represent the Camino in your day-to-day life? And [00:52:00] I say that revisiting the Camino ReWalk, those steps rereading my journal. That's where the awarenesses have come from, how my life was enlarged during that time, how my life has been enlarged since that time.
Those have been. The lessons and, and it's not an easy walk. I mean, when I read my journal, I Wonder Cheese. You know, did I complain this much out loud or did I just confine it to the journal? I mean, was I really this much of a bache rah? Because it is, you know, it's a walk. It's 500 miles. You, you've got all the stuff you know from people who snore and 40 beds in a dorm, and your pack's too heavy and your feet hurt, and your head hurts, and your body hurts.
And I mean, it's not all that, but the growth or the enlargement. If you will, comes afterward [00:53:00] and it hasn't stopped. Hasn't stopped at all. I will say this one thing because I would like to do one more walk. I, I would like to do another good long walk, just close the door and walk away and do that, and how that's going to happen.
When that's going to happen. I don't know, but I keep saying I'm ready. I'm ready for another walk
Christi: and well, there you are on the Pacific Coast Trail. The Pacific
Diane: Coast Trail. I trust that when the time comes, the place will be made known. But I will share this. I'm gonna pull this up really quick. This is a book,
here we go. I think I can do it. Granny d
Christi: let's see,
Diane: in her nineties, walking across
Christi: America.
Diane: Yes. I used to correspond with her. Oh,
Christi: wow.
Diane: Uh, so I've got all her letters from when we were, when we were talking. Um, [00:54:00] but yes, uh, she wanted to bring attention to the McCain Fine Gold Campaign Finance Reform. Bill and her husband had died.
Her best friend had died. She had arthritis. I think she had, she was a smoker, had emphysema. She was not in the best shape to be walking and yet, um, she decided this is what I want to do. And so she flew from her home in New Hampshire, I. All the way out to California and then walked across the country.
Took her 18 months and she ended up in, um, Washington, DC Wow. Snowstorm. Big, big, big, big, big, big snowstorm. She got her son to ship her cross country skis down to her so that she cross country, skied to the steps of the capitol, and met then Senator John McCain and Feingold. Yeah, there's pictures and everything.
Wow. And so I've got that. I've got that resting on my desk and I keep glancing down at it thinking, [00:55:00] come on, there's gotta be something there that you can do in her 90th year in that. Isn't that just, yeah. Amazing. See, and I think messages like that are so important, not just for seniors or people in middle earth age, but for women generally.
To say that it stops when you stop. So Doris Haddock or Granny Dee, as I knew her,
Christi: she's kind of like your guiding light. It
Diane: kind of is. I keep looking down at that craggy face. It looks like an apple doll. And she is, she's wearing a battered hat that belonged to her best friend who had, who had died. And it all came about because she was, she was at Sixes and sevens and her son said, well.
What do you wanna do? And she and her husband had been activists, you know, in their marriage protesting nuclear power plants and that sort of thing. And this campaign finance reform bill was up. And that captured her [00:56:00] imagination. And she said this. This is what I wanna do. And there's photographs in there.
She's this little old lady and she's carrying this American flag and she's walking down these highways and she's sleeping in church basements and stuff. I mean, we're not talking the Ritz here. And they didn't have GoFundMe then. Hmm. So she was cobbling it together as she went along. So we have, we have women like this who have gone before us, who are with us now to say, come on.
Come on. You got something to do here. You got something to contribute. What's your life task? Mm-hmm. What's your life task? So yeah, I keep looking at that correctly. Old apple doll face and thinking, what are you saying to me? Old woman, huh? What are you saying? So we'll see. We'll see. See what comes next.
Christi: Perfect. And on that happy note, thank you Diane, so much for being here. This [00:57:00] has been a wonderful conversation.
Diane: No, it, it's my privilege. This is the most nourishing conversation and I appreciate the time, uh, to share the mic with you, um, as a gift to your listeners.
Christi: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening.
I'm Christi Cassidy, your host. We'll be back next time with more stories of travel, relocation, and life transitions. On moving along, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.