Tipping the Balance

Ms. Waters' bittersweet memoir reveals an emotionally turbulent life teetering on the edge between anguish and resilience. In this manifesto-turned memoir, she writes of loves and loves lost, survival, forgiveness, and adventures in faraway places. Told in vivid anecdotes, this poignant story spotlights the precarious balance she maintains when her family and the people she meets impact her self-esteem and limit her ambitions in a male-dominated world, all the while examining the events and values from the 1940s to the present. The author survives ill-fated relationships, being swept out to sea, confronting an anaconda, raising children after divorce, and struggling with alcohol and prescribed drugs. Her recovery follows by crafting a dollhouse depicting good and evil, joining a tall ship crew, escaping on a three-year RV odyssey from New England to Florida with her pets, and befriending a wild bird.

In spite of childhood illnesses and family trauma, summers gardening with her Gramma become a life-long reminder of what health and contented living are like. A zoo of animals, especially her Schipperke dogs, offer Ms. Waters comfort and salvation along her way. Just in time, she discovers that there's no place like home in a garden of her own making.