Spirit Traffic: A Mother's Journey of Self-Discovery and Letting Go
Spirit Traffic recounts how, at the age of 50, the author learned to ride a motorcycle, overcame the terror of navigating her steep dirt driveway in Vermont, and, three days after her son's college graduation, set off with him and her yoga-teacher husband (his stepdad) on a 10,000-mile two-wheel adventure that took them all into uncharted territory-both as novice riders, and as a family. As if in the saddle of her dual-sport BMW, the reader will experience the good, the bad, and the heartbreak of her journey as a soon-to-be-empty-nester grappling with impermanence, sexuality, hot flashes, high winds, and tailgating tour buses.
Spirit Traffic is at once a colorful travelogue of a bucket-list bikers' route across America and an unflinching memoir of a middle-aged mom conquering her fears (on and off the bike), unpacking a complicated childhood with an addict father and stoic mother, and ultimately, learning to let go of her only child. (Think Blue Highways meets Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance meets Operating Instructions meets Wild.)
With its first-person accounts of legendary rides such as the Burr Trail, Hell's Backbone Road, and the Pacific Coast Highway, Spirit Traffic has a ready audience among bikers. But as a midlife memoir, Spirit Traffic resonates for anyone who is navigating the departure of a child, negotiating the dynamic tensions of family, or simply yearning for life's next adventure.
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Told with humor and poignancy, C. Jane Taylor shares a cross-country motorcycle journey with her husband and son that pushed her beyond self-imposed physical and emotional limitations and freed her to redefine what it means to be a woman, wife, and mother. Starting out fearful and unsure, she gathers strength and confidence as she traverses the blue highways of America. She delivers a dynamic and heartfelt exploration of midlife transformation!
- Susan Pohlman, author of A Time to Seek: Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality at Midlife, and Halfway to Each Other: How a Year in Italy Brought Our Family Home.
Taylor has written a page-galloping tale of a family's motorcycle trek across America. Beneath her family's turbulent love song to her son, lies her own oscillating terrors and triumphs, as she becomes one with the powerful machine between her thighs... and her sense of joy and loss, offering her only son to the world. I was riveted to her pages.
- Bill Schubart, Author of Lila & Theron and I Am Baybie
Jane's work took me so many places I've never been...your words made me hungry to hit the open road. I read Spirit Traffic all the way through twice, and the repeat was as enjoyable and engaging as the first. You have something really special here, and it deserves to be shared with a wider audience.
- Vermont Author Ethan Dezotelle
I'm loving Jane's book. I was laughing so hard reading about your period while on your trip! FEMA! Haha!! So flippin' funny! And orgasm riding is real and alive! This book is incredible! So well written and oh boy did I cry at the end! What an inspiring gift Spirit Traffic is.
- Mary McClements, M.A.Ed, Career, Trauma, & Transition Coach
Well, I was going to take my time with it, but it turned out to be a page turner and I gobbled it down in two days. You should be very happy. What a lovely thing you have made... This is me smiling a great big smile.
- Seth Steinzor, Poet, Author of To Join The Lost and Among The Lost
