Welcome to Fall 2020 – where it seems both imperative and often impossible to find our voices amid this catastrophic time. But voices do matter – and I am grateful that on this 6th anniversary of the publication of my memoir, I recently spoke my story into a new kind of life: The Coconut Latitudes […]
Gratitude and Surrender
As leaves fall and pad California hiking trails with soft blankets of ocher and crimson, we whisper prayers for rain, but know bare branches are also necessary for rebirth and growth. Walking on one of these mountain trails last week, I recalled words by Mark Matousek in a recent memoir writing workshop: “Growth demands a […]
Perilous Footing on the Path Home
September 16, 2014—the official publication date of my memoir, The Coconut Latitudes: Secrets, Storms and Survival in the Caribbean. It’s also the day that I will finally be at the end of my long road home. I mean that in the metaphorical sense, the hero’s journey some say, the return to one’s self. I wrote […]
HOME, BUT NOT
Recently I read a poignant post in National Geographic Traveler by writer Don George about visiting his long-ago childhood home. In it, he describes rediscovering “the layering presence of history.” Seeing his physical house altered by its new owners, he also noted the changes made him feel “It was home, but not.” The full story […]