Dear Friends,

I’ve been privileged to work alongside revolutionary men and women, partners in initiatives that heal disadvantaged neighborhoods, serve children and endangered species in foreign lands, protect our nation’s ecological heritage, boost the voices of climate scientists, and support ordinary people in their aspiration to take care of themselves, one another, and this precious planet.

In the middle of this amazing journey, I found myself carrying a soul-crushing weight of fatigue, frustration, guilt, and despair; I was experiencing burnout. The opportunity to take a break with my husband to realize a long-held dream of sailing over the horizon emerged and I took it. For six years we traveled with our cat aboard a small sloop on the Atlantic.

Ever the advocate for social and environmental justice, I sailed with a question: How am I to be in a suffering world? The Great Atlantic Teacher gave me her answers. 

Ocean of Insight: A Sailor’s Voyage from Despair to Hope is the sailing memoir of our six years afloat. Stories of disasters and discoveries entertain as they illuminate a spiritual voyage (with Buddhist underpinnings) within the larger physical journey. The ocean’s uncompromising lessons reveal how each of us can peacefully, joyfully, and effectively heal the world within our reach. 

If you share a tender aspiration to nourish what is beautiful, good, and true then you’ve landed on the right shore. Thank you for your personal journey of brave, transformative action in the world. I look forward to traveling these seas together!

Fair Winds,

Heather