Letting Go of My Ocean View
a memoir
by Deborah A.M. Phillips

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How many times can a life be rewritten? Deborah A.M. Phillips has lived with four names, two mothers, three families, and twenty-eight moves. Adopted as an infant and raised across Canada and France, she spent years searching for the missing pieces of her story. When she finally found her biological family, the reunion answered some questions—but opened many more. Then, after thirty years of marriage, her world shifted when her husband, a minister, left both his faith and their life together. Like tectonic plates shifting, the ground beneath her reshaped itself - leaving behind unfamiliar terrain, and the work of learning to live with it. With honesty, wisdom, and a keen eye for the landscapes that shape us, Phillips explores what it means to begin again—and again—and again. The memoir is structured in vignettes and scenes that delve into the power of place, attachment, identity and language. For readers of spiritual memoir, and stories of resilience, Letting Go of My Ocean View is a moving reflection on the search for home, the mystery of how we relate to each other and the courage to start over.

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“Beautiful writing and a journey that is both sorrowful and hopeful.“ —Karen Stiller, Author and Editor

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Deborah A.M. Phillips is a Canadian writer, and speaker. She has published articles, essays, and poetry in both English and French, and has spent twenty-five years speaking at conferences, workshops, retreats, and seminars across Canada. She is the author of Argonauta (FriesenPress, 2014), a novel set in Québec during the 1970 October Crisis. Deborah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College in Halifax. She lives in Mont-Tremblant, Québec, with her husband, Glen.

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