Can you imagine quitting your job, selling your home, leaving your friends/family, and moving halfway around the world? Lucinda Fleeson had the courage and the spirit to abandon the known for the remote and uncharted.
As a journalist who remembered when the newspaper business meant more than just boosting sales, Fleeson realizes her tenure at The Philadelphia Inquirer is no longer guaranteed. And given the unsavory direction the newspaper is headed, she’s ready to jump ship. Of course, making a decision and actually acting on it are two very different paths. While weighing her options, Dr. William Klein, former director at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania and current CEO of Kauai’s National Tropical Botanical Garden, offers her the position of NTBG’s fundraiser.
As her frustration at the paper grows exponentially, she chooses to accept the position, systematically shedding her stateside obligations and possessions. With unwelcoming coworkers and a cottage that passed unlivable several lifetimes ago, her arrival in Kauai proves less than smooth. But she is a survivor. The beauty of Kauai, the rewarding challenge of assisting in propagating native plants, the unique island culture, and Dr. Klein’s inspiring presence assure Fleeson that her choice was fortuitous.
Even more importantly, in Waking Up in Eden, the author grasps that her destiny will not follow a traditional route. And she revels in that realization.