Memoir chronicles search for the sacred

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This article was published 12/04/2025 (545 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Linda Trinh’s memoir is a compelling exploration of spirituality and identity, as she shares her quest to find meaning and a sense of belonging within the constraints of her life.

This is not the physical journey of a woman who sets out to find herself in the manner of Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love or of Cheryl Strayed in Wild. Instead, the Winnipeg author turns her attention inward and brings the reader with her through a transformative spiritual journey where she makes sense of the world, explores self and transforms the spaces and roles she inhabits.

Trinh immigrated to Canada from Vietnam with her family as a young girl where, sadly, her father passed away not long later. She always felt like she wasn’t enough of something, that she struggled with being from both “Canada and Vietnam, neither inside or outside those countries and those identities. The space in between.”

Trinh’s spiritual journey circles around the questions of what her origin story is, whether she is the hero of her own life and what happens at the end of that life. Repetition of the line, “I may ask these questions all my life” shows her understanding of spirituality as ever-evolving, but also influences the structure of the memoir, as these questions are explored at length throughout subsequent chapters.

Trinh has long been fascinated with the interconnectedness between cultures and myths, legends and stories. She lays out stories from around the world that demonstrate how humanity has grappled with these questions throughout history, emphasizing and drawing on the similarities and differences, creating a sense of universality to Seeking Spirit. Her perspective always draws from and relates back to her Vietnamese roots, but the ways she relates to world histories acts as an invitation for any reader to connect with their own origin stories.

Trinh’s quest takes the reader to Vietnam, the pyramids in Egypt, Emperor Qin’s tomb in Xi’an, the Isle of Avalon (where it is believed King Arthur was buried) and to Apollo’s temple in Delphi to touch the omphalos, the navel of the earth, the stone Zeus threw down to mark the centre — the “centeredness between earth and sky, mortal and divine, eternity.” We bear witness to the evolution of Trinh’s relationship with her mother, sister and her husband, Ryan. She shares changes in her workplace and having to find balance, of dark days, of the joy of her first pregnancy, her excitement over her next. The reader is privy to her heartbreak over a miscarriage, the impact of silencing self in grief and of the joy of meeting her rainbow baby — all connected to her evolving understanding of the divine feminine.

The book’s title doesn’t emphasize the value of Trinh’s message to readers of all cultures, perhaps especially to all women. Trinh is writing for seekers, people who are open and looking for spirituality, and she trusts her readership to find her work.

By embracing her Vietnamese background and staying true to herself, she shows she’s an author and woman who has come to know herself and has found her voice. Where once she was uncertain, Trinh is now strong and fearless.

Seeking Spirit is a testament to the transformative power of stories and the richness that exists between story, place and self. Within these pages, Linda Trinh shares how the spaces in between are anything but empty.

Carrie Hatland is an emerging writer and teacher.