Sophie Strand

JOIN

Sophie Strand

with Host Jonathan Gustin

LIVE on Book-Launch Day! - Tuesday MarCh 4th

11am-12:00pm PDT (2pm-3:00pm EDT)

The Body Is a Doorway: A Memoir

A Journey Beyond Healing,

Hope, and the Human

In this lyrical, radically expansive self-portrait, celebrated poet, author, and lecturer Sophie Strand explores—with searing insight and honesty—the intersecting spaces of her own chronic illness, the complex ecology of a changing world, and the very nature of the stories we tell ourselves.

Where: LIVE on Zoom
Cost: DONATION*

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*At the end of the event, a donation request of $10-$20 will be sent. You do not need to contribute in order to attend. This is a no-paywall gathering. That said, your contribution makes it possible for all to attend regardless of income.

At age sixteen Sophie Strand—bright, agile, fearless—is suddenly beset by unexplained, debilitating illness while on a family trip abroad. 

Her once vibrant life becomes a tangled miasma of medication, specialists, anaphylaxis, and seemingly never-ending attempts to explain what has gone so terribly wrong. And, for many years thereafter, Sophie's life becomes subsumed with ideas not of "health," but of explanation, and the narrative of how and why she became sick. But slowly, through both profound fatigue with the medical industrial complex and a deeply entwined relationship with the natural world, she comes to another, more fundamental understanding of what has happened to her body. What if sickness is not a separation from the body? What if health is not quite so easy to see? What if physical pain leaves us no choice but to return to our bodies, the pinpricks and lightning of illness stitching us back into a physical presence our society has taught us to ignore? 

In a work both expansively tender and shockingly frank, Sophie Strand offers readers a window onto her own winding journey through the maze of chronic illness—a web not unlike those created by the mycorrizhal fungi whose networks she begins to see as a metaphor for the profound connections between all species and the earth. Grounded deeply in the mountains of the Hudson Valley, each moment of this far-reaching narrative snakes its way through the multi-layered ecology of the land around us, from the stunningly powerful pollen of a phlox plant to the unexpected beauty and wisdom of the woodchuck. 

The Body Is a Doorway dives into the murky waters of sickness and trauma, as well as the resonant challenges and joys of friendship, young adulthood, first love, and fertility. Throughout, in precise, sparkling language, it explores questions both personal and universal: Is there healing beyond the human? Beyond the hope for a cure or a happy ending? Is there something wilder and more symbiotic beyond narrow ideas of well-being? 

Sophie Stand will be interviewed by Jonathan Gustin, on the very day that her new book launches!

Date: Tuesday, March 4th
TIME: 11AM-12:00 PDT (2-3:00pm EDT)

Register: In the sign-up form above.

Can't make it live? Register and you will receive the recording.

Warmly,

Jonathan Gustin

Sophie Strand is a poet and writer with a focus on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way, and Art PAPERS. She is the author of The Flowering Wand,The Madonna Secret, and the forthcoming memoir The Body Is a Doorway as well as the creator of the popular Substack "Make Me Good Soil." She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York. You can follow her work on Instagram @cosmogyny.

Jonathan Gustin, M.A, MFT, Jonathan is the founder of Purpose Guides Institute. He helps people to find and embody their life’s purpose, and offers training for those who want to become Purpose Guides themselves. He is also a meditation teacher, facilitating meditation gatherings remotely as well as in-person in his hometown of Victoria, BC, Canada.  Jonathan has been a psychotherapist and spiritual mentor for over 25 years.  He is a retired adjunct professor at JFK University. He has had the pleasure of co-teaching programs with such luminaries as Human Potential pioneer George Leonard, eco-activist Joanna Macy, eco-psychologist Bill Plotkin, Non-Duality pioneer Adyashanti and Buddhist Teacher James Baraz.

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to attend live and to receive the recording afterwards.

Save the Date: A follow Up in-depth Bookclub with Sophie Strand on:

Tues March 18th - 11am-1pm PT. (2-4pm ET)

Tues April 1 - 11am-1pm PT (2-4pm ET)