I taught courses on Islam, Sufism, and Gender at Skidmore College and the University of Toronto. The Sufi Mysteries arise out of my desire to talk about the people and places I researched beyond the constraints of academic skepticism. They are my love song to these early pious folk, mystics, and Sufis as human beings—who lived in a particular historical moment with all its complications—and to my experience of Islam. I live in Toronto with my partner, Michael and my dog, Billie Girl, and close by my stepdaughters, Kaya and Mishi, their partners Ryan and Ben, and their mother, Eleonore. I am also a family member of a beautiful, inclusive, local Muslim Sufi order.