Precerpt: Introduction to In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins KInd of Life
As I sit in my “office”—a modest 10x12 she shed that, post-Covid, doubles as the inventory hub for MSI Press—I’m surrounded not by filing cabinets or ergonomic chairs, but by relics. Remnants. Reminders. Each one a whisper from a life lived across continents, cultures, and hemispheres.
Hanging from the coatrack, where coats and sweaters ought to be, are artifacts that defy seasonal utility:
- A Christmas bell ornament adorned with camels from Jordan
- A painted hand fan from Korea
- A swath of fabric in Uzbekistan’s national colors
- A small woven purse from Turkmenistan
- A banner from Lithuania International University, where I once subbed for a professor on maternity sabbatical—a generous two-year leave that American mothers can only dream of
Nearby sits a dilapidated Russian Mishka bear, its head precariously held by my own crude stitching. My daughter Echo, then 11 or 12, carried it everywhere during our shared days in the USSR. It’s more than a toy—it’s a talisman of a time and place that shaped us both.
These tokens are not just souvenirs. They are the physical echoes of moments spent straddling hemispheres—East and West in quaint Greenwich, England; North and South in the high Andes of Quito, Ecuador. They are the tangible proof of a life that blossomed wherever the wind happened to blow.
There are cups, too—dozens of them. Some touristy, some unique, some emblazoned with my name. I gave away fifty when I moved to Jordan for a couple of years, but like the wind, they returned. I’ve collected just as many again.
A small metal engraving hangs quietly next to the window. A gift from my co-catechist, it reads: “Bloom where you are planted.” But I didn’t. I scattered seeds far from my roots and well beyond the narrow career field for which I was credentialed.
In the house, two glass cases overflow with “touchables”:
- Rocks from the Yambash River, flowing out of Iran and down the mountains into Turkmenistan;
- A 14th-century tile salvaged from a mosque renovation in Samarkand, Uzbekistan;
- A pine cone from a Siberian kedr, gifted to my daughter by an ice cream vendor at Moscow University;
- Tiny wooden dolls painted with the images of cosmonauts by the wives of Star City (Russia) cosmonauts—a town not unlike Akademgorodok, where I left my heart and gained a child.
This is the Mary Poppins story. Not one of tidy chapters or linear plots, but of themes and leitmotifs. A life gathered in gusts, rooted only long enough to leave behind a bloom before being swept onward.
If I were ever to write a memoir, I’ve told those who’ve asked, it would be no more than a disorganized collection of loosely related stories from all the places the wind carried me. And maybe that’s the point. Mary Poppins didn’t stay. She arrived, she helped and shared, and then she left—leaving behind a little magic from new friendships, a little mystery from cultural diversity, and a lot of memory, good memory.
Book Description:
From the barefoot freedom of rural Maine to the diplomatic halls of Central Asia, from rescuing a dying child in Siberia to training astronauts in Houston and Star City, In with the East Wind traces an extraordinary life lived in service, not strategy.
Unlike those who chase opportunity, the author responded to it—boarding planes, crossing borders, and stepping into urgent roles she never sought but never declined. Over 75 years and 26 countries, she worked as a teacher, soldier, linguist, professor, diplomat, and cultural ambassador. Whether guiding Turkmen diplomats, mentoring Russian scholars, or founding academic programs in unlikely places, her journey unfolded through a steady stream of voices asking: Can you come help us?
Told through an alphabetical journey across places that shaped her—from Acton, Maine to Uzbekistan—this memoir is rich with insight, adventure, and deep humanity. At its heart lies the quiet power of answering the call to serve, wherever it may lead.
Like Mary Poppins, she drifted in with the East Wind—bringing what was needed, staying just long enough, and leaving behind transformation. Then she returned home, until the next wind called.
From the forthcoming book:
In with the East Wind...A Mary Poppins Kind of Life
Volume 1: ABC Lands
by Dr. Betty Lou Leaver
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For more posts by and about Betty Lou Leaver, click HERE.
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