The Shy Listener 

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As a child, I was shy. I didn’t spend my time playing with dolls or dreaming of a big wedding. Instead, you could find me peeking around corners, spying on my mother. We didn’t have cell phones back then; she used the old-fashioned kind attached to the wall with a coiled cord. My mother was a "trusted messenger." People called her to pour the proverbial “tea,” and I spent hours soaking up the nuggets of wisdom hidden in her conversations. I didn’t know it then, but I was falling in love with words. I was learning MotherWit.

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The Advocate 

My mother and her friends were my fuel. They taught me that all great visions begin in the heart. This passion led me to UC Davis, where I graduated in 1994 with a degree in Rhetoric and Communication. In school, I was a fierce debater—honestly, the only "B" I wanted to be was a Better Debater. I was ready for the world, standing up for anyone who needed my help. I was pregnant with purpose.

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The Discovery

 As it turned out, I was also pregnant with our first child. I quickly realized I was becoming the most powerful kind of advocate: a parent. Nervous about the future, I asked my mother, "How will I know what each cry means?" She was in the kitchen—the most hallowed place in our home—leaning over the sink. Without looking away from the window, she simply said, "MotherWit will tell you." Her certainty quieted my anxiety instantly. After our daughter was born, I read every parenting book I could find, but the best truths weren't in any library. They were in the stories my grandmother told and the kitchen conversations I had overheard years before.

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The Vision

I realized that people of all backgrounds share this same yearning: a need to sit at the feet of our elders and remember what is truly important. Some call it common sense. I call it MotherWit. I created this magazine because I needed to hear that wisdom every day—and I knew our community did, too.

Thus, MotherWit Magazine was born.