Journalist Lynn Darling knows the concept of loss. She was 44 when her husband died. And when she was 56, she experienced empty nest syndrome when her only child left for college.
Feeling lost and unmoored, Darling left her home in New York city and bought a ramshackle end-of-the-road house off the grid in Woodstock, Vt. Over the next four years, Darling battled loneliness, geographic confusion and a 'what-could-possibly-happen-next' bout with breast cancer.
Darling, who has since returned to New York, recounts her years in Vermont with surprising good humor in her new memoir, Out Of The Woods.
She says she has always had a terrible sense of direction and that finding her way in the woods became a roadmap for finding her way in life. Darling believes her impulsive move to Vermont made her acutely aware of the role that instinct plays in decision-making.
