Lifted : Atkins & Greenspan Publishing : 9781945875649 : 194587564X : 31 Aug 2019 : An overwhelming sense of awe, gratitude, and clarity suddenly hit me. How did I get here? I'm sitting in first class on my way to St. Maarten to join my 66-foot sailboat, crew, and friends to begin a sailing saga that will take me across 15,000 miles of sea to Australia during the next 18 months. A dream come true. Retired at age 54, with a lakefront home at Lake Tahoe and building a grand home on 40 acres a mile from the ocean near the hamlet of Avila Beach, California, I wonder: How could one be more blessed? One who grew up without a father's presence, with an unstable, promiscuous mother; one who endured horrific challenges, suicide, gangs, and expulsion from high school. One who was forced to attend a trade school, unable to walk for two years as a teenager due to a motorcycle accident, and whose highest goal was to sim- ply get out of school with a job that paid enough for a car and an apartme