Hiking Naked: A Quaker Woman's Search for Balance

by Iris Graville

Knocked off her feet after twenty years in public health nursing, Iris Graville quit her job and convinced her husband and their thirteen-year-old twin son and daughter to move to Stehekin, a remote mountain village in Washington State’s North Cascades. They sought adventure; she yearned for the quiet and respite of this community of eighty-five residents accessible only by boat, float plane, or hiking. Hiking Naked chronicles Graville’s journey through questions about work and calling as well as how she coped with ordering groceries by mail, black bears outside her kitchen window, a forest fire that threatened the valley, and a flood that left her and her family stranded for three days.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Nature, Spirituality, Faith, Biography

260 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2017

About the author

Iris Graville has lived in Washington State for four decades plus, after childhood and early adulthood in Chicago and small towns in Southern Illinois and Indiana. A long-time Quaker, an environmental and anti-racism activist, and a retired nurse, Iris believes everyone has a story to tell. She’s the author of two collections of profiles—Hands at Work and BOUNTY: Lopez Island Farmers, Food, and Community. Her memoir, Hiking Naked (Homebound Publications, 2017) was a 2019 recipient of a Nautilus Award.

Iris holds a Master of Nursing degree from the University of Washington; she focused most of her nursing career in public health. She also pursued her early love of writing, and in 2015, Iris earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts.

Her writing has appeared in journals and anthologies, and she’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She’s also publisher of SHARKREEF Literary Magazine, a staff writer for The Wayfarer Magazine, and a Homebound Publications Advisory Board member.

In 2018, Iris was named the first “Writer-in-Residence” for the Washington State Ferries. Sometimes you’ll still find her writing on the Interisland ferry as the vessel courses among the San Juan Islands.

Since 1996, Iris and her husband, a retired sign language interpreter, have lived on traditional Coast Salish lands, now called Lopez Island, Washington. They tend a large garden, ride bicycles, and walk the trails and beaches surrounding their home. They have two grown children and a grandchild. irisgraville.com.

Reviews

[Gretchen Wing · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are making or contemplating a major life transition, you will love this book. If you are yearning for more spiritual depth in your life, you will love this book. If you love the mountains and the feeling of being transported to the banks of a clear, rushing creek simply by turning pages, you will love this book. If you love finding your own family conflicts, joys, heartbreak, and sweet daily celebrations reflected in someone else's experience, you will love this book. Get the picture? Iris writes with unpretentious skill, making the ordinary extraordinary.

[Valorie Hallinan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cared enough to keep on reading to the end, but barely, because the narrative verged on, first this happened, then this happened, and then this happened. Although the themes of burnout and the search for balance somewhat cohered to make Iris's story stronger, some of her connections and metaphors were strained. The search for balance wasn't compelling enough of to keep this reader fully immersed, and I question whether that was really Iris's goal anyway, or if perhaps she'd simply burned out on nursing - understandably - and was searching for her creative passion and a more spiritually fulfilling life, rather than what I see as overrated "balance." "Hiking Naked" didn't work for me, it seemed a way to grab the reader's attention, then was undermined by the ho-hum subtitle and controlled, rather straightforward narrative.

Repeatedly, I wanted the writer to go deeper into her spirituality and calling, but instead her search seemed repetitive and one-note, as if she were stuck (like so many of us! However, readers deserve a richer exploration). I was interested that she pursued writing, art, and music (tho we hear little about the latter) seriously for the first time in Stehekin, and although she writes about the creativity books/authors that influenced her (Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, etc) she skims the surface of these influences. If she truly is now exhibiting in art galleries, I wanted to know more about her talent and extraordinary transition to the artist's life, although it doesn't seem that was her intention with this book.

There have been many memoirs written about immersion in nature and risky life reinventions, so if you have read several of these, Hiking Naked may not satisfy. The bar for these types of stories is high, and writers who have matured and developed distinctive, singular voices and visions can write compelling and unusual life narratives.

That said, if you love risky life transition stories about nature, the contemplative and artistic life, and women looking back on transitional times in their lives, you may indeed fall in love with this book. I admire Iris and her family for their values, risk taking and commitment to a healthy, whole, nature-based and spiritually fulfilling way of life. And I admire Iris for taking her work seriously and seeing to it that it serves the world.

[Cindy Dyson Eitelman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, what a confusion of opinion I encounter, trying to write about this. It's a memoir, by a woman suffering burnout from the medical profession, who decides with her family to move to a remote and very small island for a year. To unplug from the grid in a very spectacular way. There are no nursing jobs there, not that she wanted one, but she instead gets a job as a baker-trainee. Her husband changes jobs, too, and her two children move from their large school to a one-room schoolhouse.

And the memoir goes from that auspicious beginning to a rather lengthy and repetitive account of her endless search for the lost meaning in her life. Yes, there is a whole lot of other stuff mixed in with her constant introspection, but that aspect of her life seems to overshadow everything else.

For example, she takes a hike with her cat up to a remote scenic view. She writes poetically of the beauty, and of the calm that descends on her spirit, and how happy she feels....

And then comes back down and resumes the worry, worry, worry--do I want to go back to nursing? Will I ever want to resume the battle with administration? Is this the right place for our kids? Do I want to care for people, or just sit around in solitude and write in my journals forever?

So, you see my conflict. I absolutely adored the people and their adventures and even their inner struggles. But the author came close to boring me to tears.

[Ellis Billington · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so quietly, peacefully eye-opening. Although it's not long, I took awhile to read it, because I think the essays included in here are best digested slowly. I loved Graville's narrative voice for its contemplative simplicity. I also loved that, while this is a book about encounters with God, about overcoming burnout, about getting away from city life for a few years to reset in a small wilderness community, and all of these things are beautiful, none of them are unrealistically romanticized. Stehekin is a wonderful, peaceful place and the author loved living there, but it comes with its own problems and tensions that are also explored in the book. Also, while living in Stehekin is an important reset for the author, her internal struggles are never tied up in so neat a bow that the book feels preachy or unbelievable. Many of her questions for God, and her questions about her own life, purpose, and meaning still remain at the end of the memoir. She's just more at peace with those struggles now.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who is religious/spiritual, anyone feeling burned out by city living, or anyone wondering what next step they're meant to take in their professional life. (All things that apply to me, making this such a great and well-timed read.)

[Brynnen Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the stories, the insight, and just the writing was a joy to experience. It was fun to listen for Quaker themes, but it really was a universal story of a woman's search for work-life-spirit-balance and exploring ideas of calling and meaningful work.

Thank you for the opportunity! I hightly recommend it to all readers who enjoy memoir-type stories.

[Yi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deepy satisfying, on a storytelling level and a spiritual level. Yes, even for those of us who don’t read “spiritual” books. This is the story of one family’s transition from city to rural life to their own brand of equilibrium. It’s worth every page.

[Julene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good memoir to read during covid time. I found it in a Free Book Library and the title drew me to take a look. Iris Graville, a white woman and a Quaker, in her 40s asks questions about her work, life, and purpose. She is in a stable, secure attached, relationship with two children who are twins. She has a good job in Bellingham, Wa, working in Public Health, but she's burnt out and questioning her path. I related to her questioning immediately.

Her family has started the tradition of going to the remote town Stehekin, on Lake Chelan, in the summers. She realizes if they moved there it would give her time to get the answers she's seeking. As soon as they mutually, as a family, agree everything falls into place. She gives up her job, and gets a lot of support from co-workers, but not from her mother; a pattern of their relationship.

We are with them for two years on this quest while living the rural experience. Rural, as in no internet, no radio, no TV, shopping is ordered and one person travels to bring back groceries for families. The children go to a one room school house. Iris works in a bakery and does some consulting in Public Health with occasional trips to town. Her husband, Jerry, normally a teacher with summers off gets the job to drive the school bus on the island. He had driven a metro bus when they first lived in Seattle. From a one year commitment, they stayed two years, the children enjoyed the small school. But after that ended they would need a place with a high school Stehekin didn't offer.

By the end of the book they transitioned to the next not so rural community on Lopez Island. I loved the settledness of this book. During the two years there are visitors from the mainland, two deaths, Jerry's father, and a family friend's son, who lived on the mainland, committed suicide. No matter where we are we have these life events. And the trials of rural living: fires & floods & electricity outages & bears.

The title is a bit misleading. It was Jerry who would strip naked sometimes when they hiked. She stripped her emotions on the page. It's a well written, everything-falls-together-well book. And very Northwest.

[Leigh Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Burn out, or fade away?

Iris Graville was completely done with being a nurse. Although it had been her dream to help improve public health, she just couldn't anymore with the long hours, endless policy debates, and difficult patients (people are not always at their kindest when they are sick, and nurses bear the brunt of it). She needed a break from her life and some time to think through her next move, hopefully with some guidance from the still small voice inside her (as Quakers do). With her family's blessing and help, they decided to spend a year in a remote village in northern Washington State, only accessible by ferry, and with a grand total of 85 residents. Will stepping out of the rat race bring clarity? Or will it just make the Graville's slightly less stressed rats?

Anybody who's ever had a customer service job wlil relate to the burnout aspects, though you could make the argument that being able to up and change directions like this is a pretty privileged thing to do. Luckily Iris is aware of this, and remarks on it often. Life in the village is both beautiful and rough, as flooding, forest fires, and LOTS OF SNOW are concerns. The book's greatest strengths are its descriptions of nature, and how complicated a "simple" life can really be, with all the adjustments you have to make.

Still, it's beautiful, even if it's tough, and even if the soul-searching starts to get a bit wearying (it didn't for me, but I could see it happening), it's a good read for folks who like "people vs nature" and "what the hell should I do with my life?" as themes. Recommended for medium to large libraries, esp. in the Pacific Northwest.

[Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking for a book to peacefully settle into? Iris Graville's Hiking Naked: A Quaker Woman's Search for Balance, then, is your perfect companion.

Finding only stress and unanswered questions after 20 years in nursing, she convinces her husband and 13-year old twins to make a bold move -- to literally move the family from Bellingham to the remote community of Stehekin at the far northwest end of Lake Chelan where there are 85 year-round residents. The village is accessible only by a ferry, float plane, or a long hike.

What follows is a peacefully unfolding journey of discovery. She questions whether she has "stayed in nursing because it serves my own need to feel valued rather than out of compassion for those I care for?" Couple that with new-found solitude and unforeseen realities such as a forest fire that threatens the entire village, ordering groceries by U.S. Mail to be delivered a few days later by boat, and a snowfall that is measured in feet.

Described as a blend of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Graville’s memoir chronicles her spiritual search for meaningful work as she lands a job at the local bakery, gently urging dough into delicious treats for villagers and tourists. She pursues a life-long interest in writing and finds time to just "be."

Her book should come with its own quilt to wrap up in while reading. Oh, wait...it is its own quilt, comforting and comfortable.

[Jan Crossen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author, Iris Graville, bares her soul in this memoir. Iris was a successful wife and mother of twins, juggling a hectic career in public health, when she hit a major life roadblock. Her passion for nursing, the career she had worked so hard to perfect, had fizzled. Iris suffered from a nearly terminal case of professional ‘burn out.” Searching for answers and spiritual guidance as to her life’s purpose, she and her family moved to an extremely remote community. The family members agreed to experience the peace and solitude of a simple, less encumbered life for two years. Iris and her family grow and evolve as they overcome challenges with grit and determination. Iris is a talented and beautiful writer. She is a master of descriptions and has perfected the art of word selection. She uses humor, honesty and wit to share her journey of discovery in this inspirational story. I celebrated her victories and shared her tears of loss. Iris has found her calling, and thrives in her chosen vocation, community, and spiritual path. I highly recommend this book!

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually picked up two books about Quakerism, this one and another by Phillip Gulley the author of the Harmony series. He is a Quaker minister so I figured he knows what he is talking about. But this book was the first one I was going to skim thru before I sat down to read. Just skimming made me stop and start reading instantly. I was sucked into the story and loved every moment of it.

Iris is having doubts about the direction her life is taking. Her husband is super understanding and even her kids get onboard when they decide to pack up their lives and move to a very remote area in Washington. What was suppose to be a one year experience turns into a two year life change. Everyone gets so much out of their time there so I think it was life changing for the entire family.

I just loved this book. I have recommended it to a couple friends already and really hope they give it a chance.

[Heidi Barr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Reading about the author's time living in a remote village made me reflect on my own choices, reminded me that community is essential for a full life, and reassured me that even though the human experience is peppered with loss, pain, and uncertainty, when it is grounded in nature and steeped in faith, any storm can be weathered. Taking stock of one’s life choices while raising a family can leave one feeling bare to the bone, and Iris tells her story with grace, humor, and humility. Highly recommended.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story by a Quaker about getting away from our “typical” US life of consumerism and living closer to nature and in community? Yes please. Iris did a terrific job describing her life in this removed community, how it affected her family, and ultimately how it really didn’t make her discernment that much easier or clearer. Enjoyed this very much.

[Sarah Ewald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit taken aback by the title. In fact, someone saw it on my coffee table, and laughed. This is memoir by Iris Graville, who, like many, had become fed up with her job as a public health administrator. She started out as a nurse, which she loved, and over the years graduated into administration. Not always what it seems, she wanted something different. She quit her job and convinced her husband, Jerry, and 13 year old twins, to move to Stehekin, a remote mountain village in Washington state in the Northern Cascade Mountains. Seeking adventure and solitude, they researched their move and landed in a community of 85 residents, and a completely new reality, where they thrived. Kids took classes in a one-room school, Jerry drove transportation for a summer adventure resort and did odd jobs, and Iris took a job at the local bakery. Telephoning someone meant going into town to use the community phone by the dock; groceries came by boat (after having been 'mail-ordered'); forest fires were a reality, and floods could leave you stranded. Despite that, there were hikes to peaks and views seen by few, adventures of white water rafting, and moments of solitude in a cathedral of trees. Sounds like heaven to me.
I tried to figure out the title, and I came up with the vulnerabilities you experience when all conveniences are stripped away, and you become one with your small community.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not sure what to expect from this book - I give it a high rating because a lot of what the author was going through sounded like me - I quit my job 3 yrs ago to try to figure out what to do...now I find myself still doing a little bit of it on the side. I, too, wanted less of a rat race of 'career advancement' - but I did not go quite so extreme as move nearly off the grid!

Also makes me wonder if I would have been a good Quaker. Meeting to sit in silence for an hour sounds better than many of the sermons I've heard in my lifetime. And sounds a lot like meditation. Plus, their activism has historically been amazing -several suffrage and abolitionist leaders were Quakers, for example.

Since the book was written (or at least published) 20+ years after they embarked on adventure - it was interesting to see how she returned a bit - was still doing some health consulting, they moved to Lopez (and remain there), her husband did return to his teaching career, too. I wonder if their experience would be the same (how has the town of Stehekin changed?) with the internet, wi-fi, cell phones, etc.

[Heather Durham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iris Graville recently wrote an article for Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog on Writing the Quotidian, on the beauty and resonance to be found in everyday life. And that’s exactly what she explores in Hiking Naked, it’s just that her stories of work, family, friendship, interpersonal challenges, life and death just happen to take place in a remote village only accessible by boat, trail, or seaplane, where the everyday also might include bears in the yard, days without power, a flood that leaves you stranded, and literal and figurative nudity. In this beautiful memoir, Graville takes us with her as she experiences real life in the wilderness beyond the romantic honeymoon period in paradise. With a balance of levity and depth, contemplation and questioning, Hiking Naked may inspire you to reexamine your own choices, and to ponder the difference between seeking and escape.

[Lucy Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iris Graville’s Hiking Naked documents the two years she and her family spent in the remote village of Stehekin, Washington. In this honest, heartfelt memoir, Graville and her family experience adventure (bears! floods!), heartbreak, the joys of close-knit community, and the forging of new identities. I especially enjoyed Graville’s account of her vocational uncertainty. Burned out after years of working as a nurse and community educator, she wrestles with leaving her calling for another path—baking? writing? What struck me, in particular, was her deep faith and abiding calm in the midst of uncertainty. That calmness was contagious (I brought this book with me when my infant daughter was hospitalized and was so grateful for Graville’s steadying presence). I recommend this book to nature lovers, parents, and anyone in a time of transition.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Iris Graville's love for her family, her community, and the North Cascades wilderness shines through every page of this thoughtful memoir. In making the choice to be unplugged in the wilderness in the modern age, the Graville family discovers more joy, and more hardship, than they bargained for. Through fire and flood, deep snow and "roof-alanches," Graville and her husband and two children face it all with admirable openness and strength. In the practice of her Quaker faith, Graville allows the spirit lead her where it may, through ups and downs and logistics galore, in the end discovering a physical sense of place, and a creative, spiritual interior life as well. A unique, insightful journey.

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent recounting of one woman's experience in stepping away from a frenetic lifestyle and living alternatively in a remote region of Washington state. Graville tells of her stressful nursing career as well as some family stressors. She is very open about financial concerns, family opinions, spiritual considerations, and just the cultural change of living in a seriously different environment.

This is not gripping in any way, but rather meanders through her thought process and the practical steps the family took to make this change. She seems like any middle-class mother and professional woman who recognizes being overwhelmed and is thinking out of the box to remedy the situation.

[Johnny Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hiking Naked was picked up laughingly because of the title. Then after reading the back it seemed to warrant purchase. Reading the well written narrative, one feels for the family as they go about their adventures. There is very much a connection with this reader about stages in life and burnout and interfacing with parents. All through the journey of this autobiography you are driving to a conclusion, but life only concludes when you die. And Iris isn't dead yet - so no conclusion.

This book is acceptable for any who would read it though there is a lot of emotional baggage wrapped in their lives, particularly around aging parents and teenage suicide.

[Edie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a lovely first-person account of a few years in the life of a family. It is based on essays which were published elsewhere for various audiences and while an attempt was made to weave them into a seamless story - there are places the stitching shows. A public health nurse and her family move to a remote community where she works in the local bakery, the kids attend a one-room school, and everyone evaluates their priorities and purpose. It is a quiet book and a quick read. I found it relatable. I also found it missing something though I'm not entirely sure what. But still, glad I read it.

[Rita Larom · Rating 5 out of 5]

While many of us dream of leaving it all behind and striking out for the unknown away from what we have experienced in the past, few of us do it. Iris Graville did. Reading this book let me join her and her family on a journey into adventures and opportunities to meet the people who thrive in an isolated wilderness community. Iris takes us along on her spiritual search while showing us a different way of living. We are the richer for learning from her while being entertained in a pristine setting in the northwest.

[Kim Seely · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! If you’ve ever fantasized about stepping out of a life you’ve outgrown and trying a new one, Graville’s story about the leap she and her family took moving to a small isolated community in the North Cascades will transport you there. What a pleasure to spend time with them as they adapt to the simple pleasures – and new challenges – of living in tiny Stehekin, WA. Graville’s clear prose and thoughtful voice hooked me from page one; reading her book is like sitting down with a wise friend.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the slightly provocative title, this was a thoughtful memoir about seeking one's purpose and calling. Iris Graville chronicled her family's two-year sabbatical in a tiny, remote village in the mountains of Washington state. I appreciated that despite months of thought, prayer, journaling and reflection, Graville left little Stehekin personally enriched but still on the journey of discovering how to live with purpose moment to moment. There was no epic revelation, simply the clarity that "the smallest touch, the briefest contact, the quietest diligence, can make a difference."

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the clear, crisp prose in each vivid description from the bear playing with a can, to the views, to the inside of a bakery, to the tragedy of losing a young person to depression. The 2 year journey of this woman and her family is beautifully shared. The search for the meaning of work and community is thoughtfully explored. The story is set in the realm of spirit. I am grateful that there are publishers willing to put stories like "Hiking Naked" out into the world.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pace of this book is quiet and its goal is simplicity. The author and her family have decided to move to super remote and isolated Stehekin, Wa. This is the story of building their new lives there. If you are looking for an intense and fast moving story, this isn’t it. It is a calm and reflective memoir of recreating your life. I enjoyed escaping to stehekin with the narrator. Makes me want to see what else this publisher has published.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author leads the reader on a several-decades review of her life as she marries, has children, and is raising her children - all while serving in the public health vocation. It is stressful and unrewarding, until her family experiences a two-year "sabbatical" to a remote Washington village. Introspective but frankly a little dull in my opinion. Also, I think this book could be more accurately titled without the "Hiking Naked" part.

[Janet Buttenwieser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Iris Graville's memoir HIKING NAKED, the story of her family's move to a tiny WA town and her search for a more balanced life. Many of us can relate to the feelings of career burnout that Graville details, but few have her courage to make significant life changes as a result. She writes artfully and lovingly about her family, her religion, her various communities, and the place where they make their new home. I was sorry when the story came to an end. Highly recommended.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering that Stehekin is a place SO very close to my heart that I love (worked there when I was 19 for a summer; possibly best summer of my life) this was a wonderful read of a lady who sought solace and simplification of her life in this amazing Valley. She and her family stayed through the winter as well, and much of what she wrote rang very true from what I experienced, and stories I know. Sometimes picking an alternative route in life has its' advantages.....

[Connie Connally · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book meditating on the meaning of family and the rhythms of life. The subtitle includes the phrase "search for balance," and it is that. I appreciate the way the book shows the new choices that have to be made when you try to adapt to a "simple" life. I think this is valuable reading for anyone who has ever wanted to "get away from it all."