Finding my peace and place in the world

In the early 80's I moved away from my home in Wisconsin and started working in the Wallowa Mountain in Eastern Oregon, doing timber surveys for the forest service. Living in the forest in my tent in a camp with other foresters, I soon found my own voice. Since the crew whowere mostly men, teased me mercifully, and I soon became known as \"the queen of the comeback\". But it made me stronger and more confident.

I worked in some of the most remote areas around the Snake River canyon where the ground was steep and hard to traverse. It was a world that I took a chance in and dug in without much experience. But soon the work was easy for me and living in the forest with no electricity, no cell phones at the time, I learned how to appreciate the stillness of the earth and the quiet ways of a life of a vagabond.

Every week or so we would break down camp and move to another place in the forest and worked that area until finished. The summers were glorious, I had complete freedom and the only way to communicate with my family were when we went to town and called at a phone booth. The work made me strong and the pay was very good. I had to learn to stand up for myself and how to get along with some of the men who didn't take kindly to women in the forestry field. I proved them wrong, I was persistent and dished up comments to their attempts to get my goat. And slow but sure I gained the respect of all of the men and the backing of the few women that worked on some of the summers.

I stayed true to myself, I refused to let the men push me around and no matter how tired at the end of the day, i would take a sponge bath and put on a dress, defying the image that I was losing my femininity. It was still ok for me to be a woman although most of the time I wore army pants and tshirts. I was still a woman. I kept a clean tent, and would hear the laughter from the campfire everytime I would dust bust out my sleeping bag and tent.

During the winter I moved to the Alsea valley and picked salal, a waxy green foilage that florists used in their flower arrangements. I lived in a log cabin along the Alsea river and enjoyed the slow pace of their valley.

After five years working as a forester, I returned to my former profession: as a caregiver for developmentally disabled adults. I was the director of a progressive company who provided support to people with disabilities in group home and in their own apartments. I became the director of the Independent Living program and was the boss to three assistants. And you know what? Whenever I needed to \"be the boss\" I could muster up that tough gal that I learned in the forest, and use it to tackle tough employee issues or reprimands.

I worked twenty years in service to people with disabilities and then became disabled myself with Multiple Sclerosis. I had to give up my life's work and I was bitter and thought I would never overcome my disease.I was forced to retire and I began another journey.

One day when i was cleaning out my closet, I came across my journals from the days when I lived in the forest. As i sat reading them, I started to chuckle and I said to myself that they would make for a good book. And i started to write, I wrote three books 'From the Waters of Coyote Springs\", \"Felix and Eve\" and \"The Arrangement\" which are sold separately as Ebooks, and I published \"The Eve Chronicles\" by Diane DeVillers a paperback book which includes all three books.

Without getting MS, I never would have found the time to write my books. It was a blessing in disguise. So it all turned out good in the end. Life gives us changes and it's up to us to make the best out of those changes.

It's all about how you react to certain situations. It's all up to you, to make your life worth living. It's all about you.