About Susan K. Rowland
God wants our dreams to come true. Did you know that?
I was born in New York City, but always told my family I wanted to live in the country. Many years later (I'm not telling how many!), I now live in a rural neighborhood in the Sonoran Desert east of Phoenix, Arizona, at the foot of the Superstition Mountains. I have visited this area for over 30 years. My mother has lived in Arizona since the early 1970s. Buying a home here, within a mile of the west face of Superstition Mountain has been an astounding dream become reality. I often sit on my front porch, with my dog, Kelsey, at my feet, and gaze up at the mountain, still finding it hard to believe my good fortune.
God really wants our dreams to come true.
I started out as a legal secretary. Then I was a stay-at-home mom for my three adopted sons, Tony, Matt and Mike. I began writing about 17 years ago, starting with a few clients who needed newsletters for their organizations and working as a "stringer" for a local newspaper. Then I took a job at a Catholic newspaper in Youngstown, Ohio (The Catholic Exponent) as a feature writer and reporter. I worked there for seven years, during which time I went to college and got a Theology degree from Walsh University. I also went through a painful and excessively lengthy divorce at the same time. After the dust settled, I decided to leave the Youngstown area and move closer to my mother, who had just been widowed. Accompanied by my new dog, Kelsey, I drove the 2,000 miles to my new life in September 2004.
I planned to take a "few" months off to remodel my home, get used to desert living, and do some freelance writing. I figured I would have to get a "real" job within a year. But my real dream was to write full-time. I just didn't know how that could happen. I attended a Catholic Writers Retreat in Tucson, Arizona, where I met the book editor of St. Anthony Messenger Press. I told her about an idea for a book about clutter--spiritual and physical. To my surprise, she asked me to do a full proposal and promised to 'champion' it with the publisher's staff. Two months after I sent the proposal, the editor told me they were going to publish my book. I wrote it over the next seven months.
Now, over four years after moving here, I still haven't gotten that "real" job. It's been tough at times to manage the finances, but God always provides just what I need just when I need it.
What a ride! It's always a thrill to hook up with God. Know why? Because .................
God really, really wants our dreams to come true.
If you have a few dreams of your own that you are longing to see become reality, God is rooting for you -- and so am I. You'll find lots of business-type information here if you're looking for a speaker or writer. But if you're looking more for support for your dreams (including the dream of bringing calm and peace out of your clutter and chaos), you're come to the right place. Let's talk about it.
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