Mary Orme

Mary Orme Ellis, mother of the author and editor of "Non-Local Flow – Good Chi, The Sea and Me," a full-color biography/travel essay that contains the poetry, prose and artwork of Tanya Orme, a young and soulful adventurer who shunned a conventional lifestyle and traveled the globe by modest means on a journey of self-discovery. Her desire to "some day write a story about my travels" never materialized, due to her sudden, tragic death.

The first two paragraphs of the introduction:

Although often translated as "energy flow," chi means “breath.” Ancient Chinese philosophers believed that the flowing force of chi sustains all life and connects all living beings to one another. Well, perhaps. But in the most real sense, my life was inextricably linked to one person: my daughter. I nurtured her body into this world, I cared for her more than myself, and when her breath, her chi, passed away so abruptly before mine, I did indeed feel disconnected from life. The day my daughter was killed, everything that I had ever regarded as important became small stuff. My heart had not simply broken—it was mercilessly shattered, emptied of a love that had fueled it for the past twenty-four years.

They say time heals all wounds, but I had no hope of waiting for this to heal. My daughter was my heart, and now she was gone. How could I live without her in my life? How dare I, her mother, continue to breathe when my daughter no longer could? I would have to create a new heart from scratch, and the best therapy for me was not found in a cushy chair beside a mental health counselor, who prescribed high doses of antidepressants and sleeping pills to quell my agony. I chose rather, in somewhat of an obsessive necessity, to vicariously ride the waves of Tanya’s many adventures by thoughtfully reading her journals. And within these colorful pages, many of which are stand-alone works of art, I found a living treasure of poetry, prose, sketches, and the most compelling storytelling I could ever hope to find. With careful selection, I transcribed the entries and created this book, a journey of self-discovery that begs to be shared.