Chelle Summer

Transcendence

Michelle Rusk

Facebook reminded me that 10 years ago today, my book on finding hope and new life through surfing after my sister's suicide and then my divorce. I sometimes I forget about the stories I have told- I understand now they are a reflection of a point in time where I was at and my hope always is to share authentically so that others might find hope from my journey

Robert Neimeyer, Ph.D., said it best in his quote on the back of the book:

"'Suicide,' writes author Michelle Linn-Gust, doesn't define me.' Instead, as she demonstrates in this slender but substantial volume, her sister's tragic death continues to serve as one motif among many that embroider the fabric of her life, in a 'work that takes (her) behind suicide... (to) circle around hope and living an authentic life.' As fluidly as the images of pools and waves that wash through this memoir, Linn-Gust carries the reader into and through the story of a life marked by trauma, activism, and transcendence, and that continues toward an unspecified horizon of possibility. I recommend it to all those who seek to understand the reconstruction of life stories in the wake of loss, in a way that conserves but is not captured by their darker chapters."

Photo by Pamela Joye– how many photos she took in a the course of a short weekend that carry this thread of water through them.