Where Do We Go From Here?

The chapters in this book of poems represent the four seasons of life and nature: Summer, Life, Winter, and Hope. Each chapter begins with a haiku that reflects the season, and the poems flow from the past, when we were children playing outside, to the present world we live in, and on to our hopes for the future. The poems will beckon you to read and reread them, and the feelings they evoke will make you feel right at home - with both the happy and the sad times of life. Where Do We Go from Here? engages readers to go beyond the ideas within these words and to give serious thought to what kind of world we want for our children.

A native of the West Coast and the Pacific Ocean, Maria Alexandria Boyd Paddock was born in Hawaii, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has lived in the Puget Sound region of Washington for fifteen years. She now lives on a few wooded acres that get far more rain than they should with her husband and their cat, dog, horse, goat, turtle, and fish.

Maria holds degrees in psychology, zoology, and business administration (with a focus on environmental economics and sustainable development). Her abiding love of animals and the environment has led her into wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, veterinary work, and wetland stewardship. What she most wishes for is a world at peace, where people have enough to eat and homes to shelter them, where diversity is cherished and preserved, and where wild animals, trees, and wilderness lovers can thrive in their natural habitats. She hopes that her artistic expressions will inspire her readers to create such a world.