I have walked through many lives,

       some of them my own,

       and I am not who I was,

       though, some principle of being

       abides, from which I struggle

       not to stray…

       ‘Live in the layers,

       not on the litter.’

       Though I lack the art

       to decipher it,

       no doubt the next chapter

       in my book of transformations

       is already written.

       I am not done with my changes.

      Stanley Kunitz, ‘The Layers’

      Table of Contents

       Cover Page

       Title Page

       Dedication

       Epigraph

Prologue

Summer 1975

Ten Days, Ten Years

Summer 1998 Sunday

Winter 1988

Monday

Tuesday

       Wednesday

       Thursday

       Friday

       Saturday

       Sunday

       Monday

       Tuesday

       Whatever Happened to Her?

       A New Life

       Gravity

       Release

       Wings, Lifting

       Scarlet Letter

       Apartment by the Sea

       Thud

       Mommy Always Comes Back

       Wish Upon a Star

       Returning

       Tremors

       California

       Star of Bethlehem

       Morocco

       Scent of a Woman

       River of Healing

       Where There’s Smoke…

       Penthouse in Las Vegas

       Window Box in the Canyon

       Death Valley

       Chisels and Wands

       Everything and Nothing the Same

       Rings and Roses

       Once a Mother, Always a Mother

       Summer in Cornwall

       Start Walking

       Christmas Wish

       Tough Love

       Log Cabin

       Epilogue

       La Mère (the Mother), La Mer (the Sea)

       Acknowledgements

       Make www.thorsonselement.com your online sanctuary

       About the Author

       Also