Mary Jo is an artist who has shown at several galleries and won numerous awards. She has been an art teacher most of her life. In Hawaii she was an artist-in-the-schools and taught children, ages 5-18, how to draw realistically, then draw and paint enthusiastically. In Corvallis, she was the art teacher in the elementary and middle schools for years. She also taught in the classrooms throughout the district, grades Kindergarten through high school, all subjects. She grew up in a family of artists and designers of homes and landscapes, and learned skills that she practiced throughout her life, designing homes and landscapes with Tom for their many homes and helped others with theirs. She learned living life is a creative experience, an art. Her mantra is “It’s got to be beautiful.”
Tom has focused on agriculture, horticulture and science. His work has spanned the gamut from satellite tracking to ranch and restaurant manager to customer service. One of the bigger projects was manager in charge of the planting and establishing the native plants at the Talking Water Gardens in Albany Oregon, a 50-acre water treatment wetland. It was designed to help cool and reduce nutrients in the treated wastewater from the treatment plant. It was also designed as a park for people to walk the 50 acres and enjoy the plants, birds and animals in the peace of the waterfalls and ponds. Tom’s passion for gardening has been shown at many of their homes and featured in Sunset magazine. Tom has used his education and experience to renovate 16 homes and develop gardens at all of their homes. Several times he managed property in exchange for housing, including a 7,000 acre cattle and alfalfa ranch.
Mary Jo and Tom have been married for 41 years. They met in Corvallis, Oregon at a place called the Beanery (that building is now Bodhi’s Bakery). They clicked right away because the way they approached life and living was the same. Over the marriage they have lived in 47 different places, following their heart, their intuition, and that “quiet voice inside” to each destination knowing there is something important to be learned there as well as something meant for them to give to others.
Below is a brief excerpt where Mary Jo describes their meeting and their life in their memoir, Our Story: A Story of Love and Adventure.
“When we met, we realized we have been living parallel lives. The fifth born into our families, both encouraged to go outside. We lived freely and were informed by nature and family, trusted by our parents to be out by ourselves, to go to the raging river and raging ocean, the hills and woods. We learned to trust the inspiration and urges we developed as a result of our interaction with nature and the nature of things. We learned not to be afraid, that our interpretation and actions based on an interactive relationship we have developed with the universe works.
Before we knew of the words and concept of the Tao, or the beliefs of religions or social structures, we were naturally living that way and still are. Now that we know these words and beliefs, we say “Yes” that is what we live. Some call it praying, some call it meditation. For us, without words, it is the physical and mental experience where our minds quiet down and our focus is on the silent expanse, ether-like, where we align with the natural force of life. Some attribute this to their brain, but we experience something different than beyond rational thinking and deductive reasoning. We beam up.
We’re not afraid; we’re open to this flow of information and energy we experience. Life is a verb we are listening to and acting on. We trust the active interaction we experience with life. It’s proven to us over and over again that where we are guided is even better than we imagined.”
