There are many stories about people trapped in their material existence, who go through a transformative experience and discover their soul and connection to the Divine. In Grit & Glue: A Memoir of Transformation for a Ship and a Soul, I write about knowing my soul as a child, and spending my life striving to integrate and embrace my spiritual awareness while being fully human and part of life on Earth.
We follow my story through teen years and reading metaphysical literature and into adulthood where real life collides with the constructs of self-identity from book learning. The influences of relationship and the spiritual practices of yoga and rebirthing culminate in finding a spiritual teacher. After three years in a large commune in Oregon, there is a crisis when the master appears to betray the disciples and the commune collapses.
Spiritually adrift, my husband and I return home to a small town and our profession of dentistry where we briefly enjoy an ordinary life before once again embarking on another adventure. While I was quite happy to remain in a small town and practice dentistry, my husband was not and it was eventually decided to move to Kauai and rebuild an old wooden boat.
This is a story of dismantling an old boat and rebuilding it without any training or prior knowledge of boatbuilding. Simultaneously it is the story of my inner journey from feeling bereft from my soul to becoming fully present in this material world as I learn to sail and navigate across the Pacific Ocean from the Hawaiian Islands to the Pacific Northwest. Grit & Glue enthralls the reader through construction set-backs, conquering impossible tasks with ingenuity and tenacity, and finally through two gales, debilitating seasickness, near knock downs and a skipper overboard.