Loren Jenner was
born in Minnesota in April 1969. She lived with her mom and dad in the northern part of the state until she was about a year
old. She has two brothers and one sister, and her father and father's family raised her for most of her life. She spent most
of her childhood living in a small northern town near Duluth, then lived in the suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul as a teenager.
As a child, Loren loved to
ride her bike and play outdoors with her cousins. She began to write poetry and short stories as a teenager and studied very
hard in school. She actively participated and lettered as a clarinetist in band, played tenor sax in the jazz band, and participated
on the basketball and softball teams. She won a state competition in 1986 for participation in a woodwind ensemble, and she
graduated with honors near St. Paul in 1987. After graduating, she took two boxes and a suitcase with her to the Mountain
West. She attended Ricks College (BYU-Idaho) as a music major, and spent as much as five hours a day practicing the piano,
clarinet and trumpet.
Realizing
that she needed to heal some deeply painful memories in her life, she went back to her roots in Minnesota. While there she
experienced a radical spiritual breakthrough. One influence on her development was The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. This book brought so much comfort and wisdom to her that sometimes she would spend as much as four or five
hours on only one page. She met her first love, another woman, not long after that. They were deeply in love and experienced
many wonderful, healing moments together. When it ended, it was difficult to leave behind, but she has never forgotten the
influence of this special person.
