Edge of the Ledge
A Memoir of Adventures Lived and Lessons Learned
by Linda Brierly

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One day, age four, I opened the door of our house, closed it quietly, and started walking. All by myself. I walked and walked. I looked at each house, at the trees, the grass, the swings, at the occasional person going by. I walked right past the border of my world, into uncharted territory. I was fascinated, tingly all over. I was pulled on and on, like a speck of iron filing to a magnet. I not only lost track of where I was, but I lost track of time. I don’t remember being afraid or worried. Without consciously thinking the thought, what drew me onward and ever onward was, “I wonder what’s around the next bend.” In this reflective adventure travel memoir, Linda recalls her life as a nurse and international “out-of-the-box” globetrotter. Her Christian journey weaves through the narrative as she shifts from believing in God but not turning to Him for direction, to allowing Him to guide her paths, wherever they may lead, and for whatever purpose. With husband Bill by her side—and a few sometimes-scary, sometimes-amusing moments they are apart—Linda shares their unique living, working, and cultural immersion experiences as they step out of their comfort zones to achieve goals, challenge themselves, and find fulfillment, including the hard-won process of forming a successful community development organization with the indigenous Pokomchi of Guatemala. Engaging and candid, Linda sheds light on a number of important principles, like how travel can be a means of learning, growing, and testing oneself, how true contentment requires seeking and then connecting with God, and how people in all cultures have common needs and goals, and the most important of these, is love. For anyone who has ever found themselves on the “edge of the ledge,” wondering which way to go, these travel accounts with a spiritual perspective will encourage and inspire.

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Linda Brierly is a nurse and international traveler, who has lived, worked, and played in various cross-cultural settings. Today, she lives twenty-four kilometers up the mountain from Clearwater, British Columbia, Canada, with her husband of over fifty years, Bill, in a five-hundred-square-foot hunter’s cabin by a creek, surrounded by trees, bears, deer, moose, and many birds and small critters. Linda and Bill founded a non-profit faith-based community development organization, Hope of the Pokomchi—the English name for Asociacion Sakombai Pokon (ASOSAP)—in Guatemala, in 2004, empowering the nationals to take control and run it successfully. In 2023, Linda was shortlisted in the unpublished author In the Beginning contest by Christian writer’s group The Word Guild, for the first three chapters of her memoir Edge of the Ledge. To contact author - lindajbrierly@gmail.com

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Contributors

Author

Linda Brierly