A year and a handful of days ago my brother died and my marriage imploded. This opened a vast canyon to step towards.
A seemingly odd response to that was to contact master wooden canoe builder Jerry Stelmok of Island Falls Canoe to build me a canoe for navigating the beginnings of major life changes rapidly unfolding.

Canoes are my favorite mode of transportation and I love sharing paddling with others so I made the leap.

One year later she is complete! Jerry was kind enough to let me help the build project this winter and putting even just a few days into this functional art project was extremely therapeutic-

Just returning from a 50 day solo sojourn aimed at healing, empowering and launching a new season in this life, I now have the canoe! It’s epically gorgeously and feels really good to be in. We launched and christened together this weekend and I am deeply grateful.

My new home river that I am adopting (or is she adopting me?) is the Presumpscot. I paddled upstream for a couple hours and happily allowed the current to take me and turn me round back downstream, in the flow.

I got to witness FOUR bald eagles, a river otter, kingfisher, Canada geese, mergansers and mallards.

One eagle gave me a good, long, close look, eye to eye, for an unnerving and mystical amount of time. We were twenty feet apart and all I could do was breathe and smile.

I am so so happy to be home. In Maine. I feel welcomed back by the spirits of the land here. Also by the CCC: cat, community, and canoe

I feel very complete and renewed. I’m so excited to see where Life springs me.

PS I love canoe coaching and have been offering that service for many years- healing arts practices now on new waterways and in the most beautiful water craft. Reach out to learn more. https://www.spiralsofwellbeing.com/offerings