When we had to research a profession in 7th grade I chose “sociologist”– but I knew what I really wanted to do was have a family and run a home. It seemed to me, then as now, that this would be the happiest life! As an undergraduate at Cornell College I fell in love with the truth, and as a graduate student at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies I fell in love with my husband. He was planning to be a college professor, and that seemed just about perfect to this professor’s daughter raised in a college town.

I spent the next few decades living my dream, raising three fine children, making a home for our family, and endlessly reading, thinking, listening, and talking. Over the years so many girls found their way to my living room where, over a cup of coffee, we talked about life, dreams, God, family, work, and boys. Now they call it mentoring, but I have always thought of it as friendship. The importance of the home was a common subject of interest, concern, and anxiety. 

I now have an empty nest but a busy home, often filled with family, students, friends, and random guests from around the world. I speak, write, and teach on quite a few topics, but my favorite one is the home. I love reading Wallace Stegner and Marilynne Robinson, dancing the rumba at weddings, going up north and out west and down south, and baking Julia Child’s Reine de Saba torte.

And now it turns out that I’m a writer! I’ve written The Thoughtful Home, about what a home is and what it is for. It will be available in November from Scepter Publishing, and I’d love for you to read it, talk about it with your friends, your sisters, your coworkers or your spouse, and let me know what you think. 

~ Dia