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 apartment.

How I got here--and the insights and lessons learned along the way--are the story of my life.

As I look back over the challenges and traumas, what stands out is how every aspect of my life was and continues to be connected in ways that gradually lift and support me on my amazing, blessed journey. I can see how the love and care of so many who touched my life made a huge, positive difference, and how I inter- nalized and applied their wisdom and guidance.

I hope the lessons in my story can make a difference for you. --Mike Ritter