Elephants have long memories and have been shown to have empathy for other elephants. The title Linde’s Elephants came from my desire for this blog to be a record for my daughter, a glimpse into our life when she was too young to remember. She’ll be able to learn not only about herself and how parenthood has changed our lives, but also about her mother, and all things that make me me.

Linde’s Elephants started as A Year in the Southern Minnesota Triangle, which served as an outlet for me to remind myself of all the creative, interesting and life affirming aspects of my existence while I lived in Rochester, Minnesota and commuted 90 miles for nursing school. After that year, I graduated with my second degree, returned to Minneapolis, got married, and turned this blog into But I Guess I’m Already There. The title clearly was swiped from my favorite song by the Talking Heads. After a year’s hiatus, the transition to Linde’s Elephants happened after the birth of our daughter, Linde Jane.

I decided to write again after her birth driven by a deep seeded need to publish her birth story. After a month of explaining it and reliving it, I wrote it and posted it on Facebook for all to read. The relief was instantaneous. Moving the words from my head to the page freed me of needing to relive it any longer. It was as if replaying it in my mind ensured I wouldn’t forget it, in order to someday tell Linde of the night she was born. Written down, I was relieved of the responsibility. The memories would be frozen, unable to be reshaped by my mind with the passage of time.

I’m 32 years old, and a few years into my second career as an intensive care nurse at a 650 bed hospital in Minneapolis. I’m married to my best friend, who I went to high school with, though we are definitely not high school sweethearts. I write about my life, motherhood, my travels, food, and my endless creative ventures.

I’ve been inspired to write by so many amazing bloggers, some of who you can find under blogs I follow. They’ve inspired to stretch my purely Scandinavian limits of emotional exposure, which has in turn inspired others.