Inspiring Women Magazine November 2023

HARC - Pat Conroy
Literary Center,
Beaufort, SC, Exiled
South book tour,
2022 (above)
Book cover for Exiled
South (top right)
Harriet and daughter
Sarah, both authors,
discussing Exiled
South in Edmonds,
WA. June, 2022 (right)
Walking the streets in Rio de Janeiro and São
Paulo, one sees a diverse population not unlike
major American cities like New York, Chicago,
San Francisco or Seattle. Whether it’s urban or
rural, I feel at home in Brazil.
What advice would you give to someone else
planning to embark on their own move to a
new country?
• z Find someone in your stage of life who
has lived in the country you plan to move to.
FAWCO and FAUSA are excellent resources.
Read up on culture shock.
• z Research the culture before you move.
Make it fun with movies and music.
• z If you have children, research educational
and home school options before you go.
• z Start language lessons as soon as you
know you will be expatriating.
• z If you or family members have health
or mental health conditions under current
treatment, beware of accepting the
assignment. Consider what many companies
now offer, a long-distance family relationship
with frequent visits. If you have special needs,
are the resources you need available? If not,
do not accept the assignment no matter how
attractive the employer makes it sound. As
a mental health professional, I know coming
home early – failing the assignment – is tough
on careers and families.
Tell us something interesting about yourself
that not many people know.
When my children were young, I used to have a
potter’s wheel and electric kiln in our garage. I
made earthenware mugs and dishes, sold them
at the street fair and gave away more of my
pottery than was probably wanted to friends
and families for birthdays and Christmas. I still
have a few pieces of my hippie 1970s pots in the
back of the cupboard. After all these years I can’t
quite bring myself to toss them.
Where is the most beautiful place in the
world you have been? What made it so special?
In the late 1980s, when the Sendero Luminoso,
the Peruvian anarchist group, was terrorizing
the country, there were few tourists at the Inca
Historical Sanctuary, Machu Picchu. At that time
there was a small, simple hotel at the ruins
where my husband and I spent the night. Early
in the morning, we walked in the company
of rabbits searching for breakfast and llamas
owned by local farmers munching grass around
stacked stone walls still standing without mortar
1000 years on. We climbed a prominent peak
at the sanctuary and watched the sun rise over
the Andes with a clear blue sky.
Is there a culture you'd like to learn more
about? Why?
Northwest Tribes and First Nations Canadian
totem poles. I have traveled in the West and
Northwest for many years. Wherever I travel,
I am fascinated by cultural myths and totems.
Because I live in the Pacific Northwest, I want
to dive deep into our Northwest tribal myths
and creation stories.
What's your favorite cultural tradition (past
or current)?
Thanksgiving. Just the word says it all. The
tradition of sharing food with friends and family
is as good as it gets.
Harriet with one of the 5,000-year-old standing stones in
the Temple Wood Circle, Kilmartin Meadows, Scotland,
about 90 miles northwest of Glasgow, 2023
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