My True Names - Anchors in an Open Sea, #3

Book Three of the Anchors in an Open Sea trilogy by Dyana Wells. Based on a true story of sailing adventures through the Pacific. What drives the desire for healing? What is this human life? These are some of the questions explored by Alice and her family. Alice and Cornelius are on the adventure of a lifetime. They sail west from Fiji to Vanuatu, then on through the Solomon archipelago. They follow the misty horizon of sea and sky to the remote islands of Papua New Guinea. Friendly locals welcome them. Jungle and coral landscapes enclose them.  Alice wants to keep sailing forever, in spite of serious relationship difficulties.
She repeats her mantra - stay present and be interested. Of course she fails, most often she fails, and yet she knows that until she comes close to what frightens her the most, until she befriends her most difficult moments, the gift of her mystical experiences will be lost. She has everything to gain and everything to lose. The older, wiser Alice is now teaching meditation and the integration of neurophysiology with Buddhist psychology.
Her daughter Charlotte, thoroughly dispirited about what humans do to themselves and others, comes to study with her.