The blurb below is something I first tried to summarize in March of 2015 about how this blog came about, shortly before spending what would become almost 7 months of soul-mending along the Appalachian Trail with Sojo the wonder dog.
I started this blog in the autumn of 2014 at a time when I felt called to do some internal processing around stigmatizing mental illness, related marginalization, and alternative models of health when mainstream success standards don't fit.
But I found myself struggling with how openly to share, and unfortunately wrote VERY little as a result. I realized that I am still struggling with internalized stigma around disabling mental illness and other ways I don't fit mainstream molds for functioning and achievement. I hope that in time, I will practice sharing more openly, though it may take me a while.
I wanted to write under my own name here, partly in an effort to combat my own sense of shame, and partly because when I have risked sharing before from a non-mainstream perspective in other areas, people said it helped them to feel less isolated. From 2006 to 2009 I had written a blog about living simply in a little cabin in a large forest, which I shared with just a few individuals. During an active social justice advocacy period beginning in 2011, I spoke out primarily about marriage equality in explicitly public venues -- in person at a town hall meeting, a county commission meeting, newspapers, an interview on a radio talk-show and an interview on regional television news.
My social justice focus significantly broadened after exposure to Rev Dr William J Barber III's coalition building efforts, and attendance at several intensive Racial Equity Workshops by Deena Hayes-Greene and Suzanne Pilhcik. I assisted with the formation of a new NAACP Branch, and with the Peace and Justice Team of High Country UCC. But while my passion for social justice remained strong, I found that my ability to remain functional in the mostly extroverted settings they involved was very temporary. By the fall of 2014, full depression took over again and I needed forest immersion in order to survive. I am immensely grateful that my circumstances allowed for that form of medicine to be fully realized.
Soon, autumn became winter then spring and what now is all consuming is my departure next month on an extended A.T. (Appalachian Trail) journey with our dog Sojourner. I thought about starting a separate blog specific to that journey, but decided to wrap it into this one -- since an Appalachian Trail journey surely qualifies as Wilderness Wanderings both in literal and figurative terms. A significant part of my life journey thus far has involved figuring out how to live well in a culture I often find to be painful, and how to feel successful when conventional status measures or symbols don't fit me. I am grateful to wilderness as my touchstone and inspiration, and to so many gentle loving souls I've met along my path.
So going forward I will try using this blog for a blended repository about literal trails, and other journeys, and see how it unfolds from here...