The Second Journey: The Road Back to Yourself

The Second Journey picks up a decade after A Year by the Sea???what happens after Joan returns home to her busy life. It chronicles a moment of crisis in Joan??'s life as she tries to determine how she can be all things to all people and be good to herself. Told in three parts???Accidental Journeys, Second Journeys, and Spiritual Journeys???she speaks to women who, at mid-life, are open to embracing new possibilities in their life. Joan admits to still struggling with balancing work and play and finding her new role not only in her growing family, but also the demands of being a spiritual mentor to her ever-expanding group of fans. But with the help of good friends, family???and the Salty Sisters, a group of her workshop participants, Joan develops a new outlook on the second journey. Her goal is to inspire other women to do the same, and come of age in the middle of life.

                With characteristic humor and warmth, Joan offers her readers her signature advice and insights on how to regain the fun, playful, thoughtful selves they may have lost along the way. Through Joan??'s own journey, she reveals common hang-ups and insecurities all women face, and reminds them their journey has only just begun. The Second Journey is for any woman who has taken a detour from the life she expected, and helps her chart a new course. The best is yet to come.

"After the publication of her first book of self-transformation (A Year by the Sea) in 1999, Anderson writes of being consumed by a pressing schedule and a web of family cares that have derailed her from her original trajectory of self-truth. While her first journey consisted of separating herself from a previous life that had defined her as compliant and dependent (a wife and mother), her current journey involves taking stock of the progress and strengths gained in the previous 10 years. She attempted to get back on track by discounting 'counterfeit journeys' (such as illusory ambition), refusing to be blackmailed by her ailing mother and resisting the urge to join her grown children's already-charged households over Christmas. Instead, she found sustenance in weekend seminars with other women; a pilgrimage to Monomoy, Cape Cod; and a magical three-week stint to the island of Iona, Scotland. Self-help platitudes abound, as Anderson quotes her mentor Joan Erikson ('The most important thing is to share what you know'), and her similes grow tiresome (she compares herself to a tangled, empty lobster trap). For readers eager for more, though, she does drop hints of marital discord and of leaving her journey unfinished." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Anderson's warm, inviting tone will appeal to women who feel, as she did, that they need time and space to reinvent themselves."

--Publishers Weekly

"Encourages us all to take the breaks that we need to regain our emotional balance . . . a fulfilling chronicle."

--Philadelphia Inquirer

From the bestselling author of A Year by the Sea, this memoir is a coming-of-age story for every woman who has asked herself: "Now what"

The Second Journey chronicles Anderson's quest to restore equilibrium to her life after the responsibilities of being a mother, wife, grandmother, caretaker, and bestselling author distract her--almost dangerously--from taking care of herself. Suffused with Anderson's characteristic humor and warmth, this book is a permission slip for any woman who seeks to step out of line and create her own destiny. As Joan shares her stories of balancing love, marriage, family, parents, and spirituality, she inspires and instructs readers to find peace and a unique purpose within their own lives. She offers reassurance that the best is yet to come, and empowers other women to come of age in the middle of life.