Bernadette Gavin
In Conversation: Local Books in the Making
Saturday 1 July, 9am.
Bernadette currently lives in Raglan with her partner, Phil and their daughter, Sequoia. She is director of Yoga and Holistic Bodywork at Solscape, a hub for travellers world-wide and an inspirational place for reconnection that was founded by her and Phil 14 years ago.
During this time Bernadette has been helping others reconnect with their own wellspring of deep inner stillness, wisdom and joy through Hawaiian Massage, Reiki, Craniosacral therapy, Intuitive Guidance and teaching yoga.
When she is not too busy being a mother, therapist, yoga instructor, artist, writer and activist, you will find her surfing, walking the beach, talking with animals and star gazing.
The Session
Bernadette will be discussing the writing process of her first book, By the Light of the Moon, alongside other local authors.
The Book
“My memoir By The Light of the Moon, weaves a love story, an oceanic-adventure in a wilderness of water and the quickening of a self-discovery process.
In the year 1995 I met a man in France and joined him on his quest to circumnavigate the globe on a small sailboat. Weeks that stretch into months at sea, and the many, many hours of aloneness adrift in the enormity of my existence summoned immense endurance. Confronted with the realities of the human condition, I searched desperately for the tools to maintain an internal equilibrium.
After my return in 2000, I wrote a book about my adventures. However, I had been a young woman in need of a happy ending and this version, I later discovered, was only the bare bones of a story.
Thirteen years later I had a chance encounter with a woman who, after reading my manuscript, told me there was something missing. That something, she said, was ‘Me.’ With her prompting I painstakingly began searching the tenebrous places of my past, piecing back together fallen aspects of my Self, not only belonging to the young woman lost at sea years ago, but also my childhood Self. In this way, another version was discovered and a second layer added to my story.
Both the journey at sea, and that of the rewriting process, brought me face to face with my own sense of self and my place within the bigger picture. This led to a personal awakening and eventually, the finding of my voice. This epic unfolding emerges gradually throughout the manuscript.”
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See next event: The Making of Someone’s Mana, with poet Haare Williams and photographer Michael Krzanich.
