This the official blurb:
Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden
Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age
of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to
follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In
1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in
Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing
everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in
the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and
cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita’s example encourages us all
to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden
spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.
I found this a very interesting and inspiring book.
the author has not had a permanent address since 1987. Rita Gelman writes: My
kids had left home, my husband was an ex, and it was finally ‘my time’. I no
longer wanted to live in one tiny dot on the giant map of the world, I wanted to
explore, to adventure, to connect with the diversity of life on earth. I was
ready to live my dream.
She certainly did. She lived in Bali for eight
years, staying with an elderly prince and his family. He was a very spiritual
man and about that time she writes: In Bali I have learned to listen to the
spirits, the inner one that is part of me and the ones from the other invisible
world.
In between her stints in foreign climes she returned
to the USA for periods of time to visit her family, and these are also
described, so the reader is also drawn into Rita’s personal story. Besides the
places mentioned in the blurb she also writes about her wanderings in Irian Jaya
in Indonesia, Guatemala, New Zealand, Israel, Nicaragua, Thailand and
Canada.
However, in each place, she didn’t just want to
wander and explore like a tourist, she wanted to really get to know the people
and learn about and experience their culture and traditions and to live with
them as they lived, so her experiences were very diverse and interesting. She
got close to the communities she stayed with, was very involved in their day to
day life, becoming part of them and sharing with them at a very deep and
intimate level.
Rita Gelman has written other books, including
children’s books she reads and gives to the small children in the communities
she stays in. I bought a couple and they would appeal to children everywhere
because they are humorous. The follow on, Female Nomad and Friends looks
interesting too. it’s a compilation of stories and recipes from 41 people from
different places.
Rita Golden Gelman has a website, is on facebook and
twitter. She writes : i am a modern day nomad. I have no permanent address, no
possessions except the ones I carry, and I rarely know where I’ll be six months
from now. I move through the world without a plan, guided by instinct,
connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous
opportunities.”
People are my passion. Unlike a traditional nomad,
when i go somewhere, I settle in with the locals long enough to share the
minutes of their days, to know the seasons of their lives and to be trusted with
their secrets... I have been living and loving my nomadic existence since the
day in 1986 when, at the age of forty eight, on the verge of a divorce, I looked
around and thought, There has to be more than one way to do life. There
is...
I reckon she’s 73 now. What a courageous lady and
what an inspiration!
No comments:
Post a Comment