For a few years now, friends and advisers of mine have told me, “People are interested in you, who you are and how you became the way you are. It is the story of you naturally as you are that you should put out there.”

This is not something that appealed to me. Sure talking about my life in the context of the things I teach is one thing.

Frankly what is important to me has simply always been being as purposeful as I can, but never going so overboard with purpose that I miss the point of my life: mainly, just living it. But recently, I’ve started thinking that being dynamic IS an important part of who I am and what I do. My passion for LIVING is huge, and if that inspires others to look for their own passion in a bigger way, well, count me in.

So after years of hearing some really smart people share what they would be interested in hearing from me, (in the past few weeks it’s been constant and from every angle), I am taking on an additional expressive outlet: This blog.

I hope that my journey will inspire your own. I hope that you will pass this on to others in your life who are searching, and I hope that you will share your process and progress with me as well.

NOW AND ZEN … My first name is Zen. My friends call me Zen, Z or Auntie Zen. I have one dear soul sister that calls me Zennie – she is the only one that it actually feels warm and good when it comes out of her mouth. Everyone else who tries to call me that simply does not really know me (or they think they do, and it leaves me feeling like they really don’t). Zen is not short for anything, and no, I was not born with that name. I agreed to take the name at twenty-three. At some point I’ll write about how my first name came into being (and my two last names, for that matter). For now, feel free to just think of me as Zen, Z or Auntie Zen, and you can then be in the inner circle of those who know me well.

I got married on August 18, 2009, for the first time, at the age of 39. It still blows me away that I am married and actually LOVING it. That is something else I promise to blog more about. Marriage was a dreaded act that I always barely escaped from. It meant the end of me, or my freedom to BE me. [Side note: I have been engaged FIVE times, but was never engaged to the man I married.] My husband is quite the character, so much so that I am giving him a name in this blog: Moose. He is not big like a moose, he really does not look like a moose, and I don’t actually call him Moose. The reason I am giving him a personal title for my public life is to give him some space and anonymity. He is such a part of who I am now I would not be able to write about my life without writing about him, and he is ok with that. In fact I think he will enjoy reading about what I think of him and our life together, as much as I will enjoy writing about those precious truths. The personal title is also to keep him a bit more to myself too.

My wedding day
My wedding day

Moose means nothing other than he loves moose’s (okay, someone help me spell that). He has a box – a small box, but still a box – of moose things he has collected. I use his moose potholders in our kitchen (soon to be brought to you in video), and we have moose Christmas decorations. Every time I see a moose now, it represents him. So there you have it – the regal, sometimes awkward, seemingly thick-headed (yet soft), hard-to-mistake-for-anything-else creature that is my husband. This is his totem animal, and thus, his name in this blog. I have always considered my totem animal to be the hummingbird, by the way. If you envision a hummingbird and a Moose together as life partners, you pretty much get the picture of our relationship. Yeah, I know, but believe me it truly works.

Since I am all joyously married now I find it tough to not carry the theme into other areas of my life. You can expect this blog to be something old, something new, something borrowed, and sometimes, something blue. To be honest, it is the blue part is what has kept me from blogging about myself in the first place. The blue is not for sadness, but for my sense of humor and the way I live my life. Just to the line of impropriety without really crossing it (at least not too often. ) I love being human and spiritual too, so if you are not ready for a real woman, who loves life (and living it at the line but not over it) this blog will at times not be for you. That is AOK with me if it’s AOK with you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this first long passage and I look forward to getting to know your thoughts too.

A special thanks to Moose, my Dad (Les Kloppenburg), Kathleen Brucher, Teri Bigio, Jennifer Lieberman, Manju Bazzell, Maggie Wiess, Lisa Graham, Lance Freeman, Eddie Carden, Chris Pryor, Neil Rogin, Jim Channon, Van Jones, Rob Guralick, and all the other wonderful friends and family that have encouraged me in the past few months to get this blog going and to share more of my SELF with you. If I left anyone out please let me know. I hope you busy people actually now have time to read it occasionally.