An excerpt from the novel “The Old Wood Door”. Jolly begins to meet nature more fully. She is realizing that her seclusion is not so lonely when it’s filled with nature.

An excerpt from the novel “The Old Wood Door”. Have you ever come across something while naturally going through life that made you stop? A stop that creates a sensation that comes over your body causing you to become fully present in time and take notice?

Learning to live without grief is a lot harder than taking off an old coat. It takes time to peel the layers and slowly meet the vibrant colours that start to paint the world around you.

Here Jolly describes her first day in the processing building that Sugg calls, “The Fish Den”. The space is dark, wet, cold and filled with loss. Instantly Jolly feels uncomfortable in this space. The room spins, she is nauseous and feels way out of her element.

We are made of moments. Some are tethered and stuck in time, others are lost the day we found them.

Jolly is entering uncharted territory. Her first day at sea has triggered her subconscious activating messages in her dream state. Her voyage started a while ago, but in an emotional sense, has just begun.

The rocking boat and pride take over Jolly’s energy causing it to plummet. With her head in her hands Rocky gently offers his, giving her a new tool to add to her tool box.

It is difficult to change when all you know is one thing. Here, Jolly explores changes she wants to make, knowing they can’t happen overnight.

Sugg is a natural born teacher with insight that he shares using what he knows best, the sea. On a path toward her own self-discovery Jolly unexpectedly catapults Sugg onto his.

An excerpt from the novel “The Old Wood Door”. If you truly want to see others, you have to see yourself first.

I first noticed the wind in a new way on a hike in Jasper National Park a few years ago. I was at a fairly high altitude in an ecosystem that looks entirely different than the forests I am familiar with in Ontario. I remember hearing a faint rustling noise causing me to stop and turn around, almost like it wanted me to notice. I listened as it gently crept closer through the thick forest until it reached me and continued on its way toward the summit. It was a moment I won’t forget. It helped me understand that there is a lot more knowledge that surrounds us that is accessible if we choose to surrender.

If you ever stop and pay close attention to nature you’ll notice the subtle way it communicates where time and speed just don’t exist. Our human experience isn’t that much different.

An excerpt from the novel “The Old Wood Door”. Since arriving to Woodpine the main character has had vivid, yet strangely familiar dreams. One morning in the bakery she works up the courage to tell Emmi about them and is surprised by her knowledge.

A lot of the novel is based around the unlikely people that show up in our lives that can ultimately make the biggest impacts. Whether that be thrusting us forward, despite insecurity, creatively or help steer us to parts of ourselves that we have yet discovered.

Sometimes we don’t want to admit we have grief because sometimes the awareness toward it needs a little nudge. It hides well and sometimes takes time to notice it. However, when are ready to confront it the world around us starts to let us know where to look a little deeper.

Here the main character, still new to Woodpine, witnesses a heated exchange in the bakery. A small wavelet that begins to draw her into the open tabs of her spirit for her to explore.

The common theme throughout the novel is the main character’s issue with the Old Wood Door. Most times it’s the bell, other times it’s the heaviness or the squeaky hinges. Today it is the lock. No matter how hard she tries she can’t unlock it. In this conversation Emmi the bakery owner, where the MC spends time between work shifts, lends her a hand.

Both characters have experienced their own traumas and loss and start to warm up to the idea of meeting and unwinding their own together.

It speaks on finding the gifts within that create ease and flow.

It touches on vulnerability and its effect and potency on the people around us.